The Angel of Life & Death
by ookami117
Summary: An average teenage girl and her best friend have somehow ended up on a journey with a ninja, a wizard, a princess, and an achreologist. However, she's missing twelve and a half years of her own memory. Can she find out why during her journey?
1. The Start of the Journey

This is my first fanfic of FanFicton. I'm still not really pleased with it but I've decided, with the help of fellow writer Blood Butterfly, that it's time to srat publishing this story. I'm sorry about any of the characters acting out of chacter if they are. Please review, it would help alot with my confidence in this story.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Tsubasa characters. I only own Mizuki, Tsubame, Masaru, & Kazuki.

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Chapter 1

The Start of the Journey

_But paradise is locked and bolted. . . ._

_We must make a journey around the world_

_To see if a back door has perhaps been left open._

_**-Heinrich von Kleist, **__**On the Puppet Theater**_

"Wow. Sounds like he's become incorrigible." I told Tomoyo as she told me about one of the ninja that she'd taken in a while back. I didn't really know too much about her. She told me that she was a priestess and was from a different world and that everyone there called her 'Tomoyo-hime' or some other royal term or so she told me. Don't get me wrong she's never lied to me, I would know if she did. But she was a friend that I only spoke to in my dreams, which made often wonder if I just dreamt her up.

"Yes, he has. I don't know what I'm going to do with him." She sighed. This ninja of hers, as she told me, was only focused on getting stronger and gaining power. He was already the strongest in their country but he still wanted to get stronger. She would tell him not to kill anyone if he didn't have to, but he would kill them anyway. Me myself I'm glad I hadn't met the guy and probably wouldn't have to.

"Well if you want my advice you should give him one more chance. Then if that doesn't work, well you'll just have to punish him then." I was awoken by my alarm before I could hear her response. But somehow I thought I heard her saying 'happy birthday'. Those words were ringing through my head in her voice. I pushed the covers from over my head, and looked at my alarm and saw the date was January 17th which would make me seventeen today. I sat up on my bed and turned off my alarm. As I got ready for the day I couldn't help but wonder how Tomoyo knew it was my birthday. I'd only told her the date that it was going to be when I woke up.

_If she knew and I never told her doesn't that mean I DID dream her up? Which means everything she told me I made up myself. That's too bad. I think it's interesting to think that there might be different worlds, with different customs and cultures. _I thought as went downstairs and into the kitchen to make my father coffee and breakfast for us both.

"Mizuki, good morning." A familiar voice said from behind me. I turned to see my father.

"Morning, Dad. You're up earlier than usual. Is something wrong?"

"No nothing at all. I just wanted to see you as long as possible today since it is your birthday after all."

"What are you talking about? You'll see me after school today. And I've had other birthdays what makes this one so special?"

"It's not everyday a girl turns seventeen." he said smiling in his usual gentle way. I decided to leave that conversation at that. Once my father got started on something he'd never stop. Through breakfast we talked about other things. Mostly about how my school work and his work as a surgeon was going. After breakfast I made my lunch and got my messenger bag, which was filled with it's usual things: books; my sketch book; my journal; drawing utensils (i.e. drawing pencils, charcoal, colored pencils, etc.); and various other things, together for school and my dad went upstairs to get ready for work.

"Dad I'm going to school now. I'll see you after okay." I called to him before leaving.

"All right. Have a good day today, sweetheart." He called back as I closed the door and left, hoping that my birthday would pass by without consequence despite the weird feeling I had.

‡†††††††††‡

Upstairs in his study Masaru Kurosawa, Mizuki's father, was speaking with an old friend of his, about what would happen later that day, by using his magic.

"So she'll begin that journey today?" he asked a little sad.

"It seems so." Yûko, the space-time witch replied. She was a person able to grant any wish, so long as the wisher paid a suitable price.

"Could you do something for me?"

"It would require a price. But you are sending your precious daughter on an unpredictable journey that will last for who knows how long and are risking ever being able to see her again. I suppose that's payment enough."

"If Kazuki ever asks why I sent her on this journey while knowing what might happen, tell him that I decided that it was time I give her back to the one I most selfishly took her away from. I would tell him myself but I don't I will be able to."

"Of course Masaru and don't worry. Your daughter will be in good hands."

"I know. Thank you Yûko-san, for everything you've done for my family and I." he said as he dissipated the spell that helped him communicate with Yûko and left the house for work.

‡†††††††††‡

As I was walking to school I passed by Tsubame Maki's house just in time to see Tsubame herself walking out the front door. Tsubame was my best-friend and basically my protector. Although she did know that I don't need protection all the time she was _always_ there when I did. She ran towards where I was when she saw me. She was wearing the same thing as I was. A long-sleeve shirt and a skirt. This was our school uniform in Japan. The only difference was that she had short, brown hair that had been let down, and I had long, black hair (it went down to my lower back went it was lent down) that was put up with a hair-tie and a hair clip and right near the front of my hair, which was free of the hair-tie as it was too short to reach, was a hair ornament that twisted around one lock of hair. It was actually quite beautiful. Hanging from the top of it was what looked like a bell but it was really a stone that I had no name for.

"Morning Mizuki. Happy birthday." she greeted.

"Thanks. Good morning to you too, Tsubame." I replied.

"So how was your night?" which was code for 'did you have any funny dreams or visions in your sleep'. She knew of my abilities, but didn't understand why I never used them to my advantage.

"I talked to Tomoyo-hime again." I'd also told her about the many _other_ times Tomoyo and I had spoken. This time was no different.

"Really? What did you two talk about this time?" She always fond it amazing that I could talk to others in my dreams and that there may be many different worlds.

"She told me about this ninja of hers that wants to get stronger and more powerful. And even though she tells him not to, he kills needlessly." I explained.

"So what is she going to do about him? I'm sure she told you."

"I don't know. I suggested giving him one more chance and if he did it again I told her I thought she should punish him."

"So what did she say about that?" she was obviously amused. She was aware that I wondered if Tomoyo was even real or something I made up in a dream but she continuously assured me that the latter is definitely not the case.

"She didn't get the chance to say anything about it. My alarm went off before she had a chance. But she did say happy birthday, or I think she did."

"Well, that was nice of her."

"Yeah, but I never told her it was going to be my birthday, I only told her the date it was going to be."

"Well she did tell you she was a dream seer. Maybe that's how she knew."

"That or I did just dream her up."

"Stop saying that! You didn't make her up alright." she exclaimed.

"Okay, okay. I didn't make her up. I'm just saying how could she have known that January 17th was my birthday unless I already told her or made her up."

"Well then maybe you _did_ already tell her, but you don't remember."

"Yeah, maybe." I reluctantly agreed as we walked into school for a hopefully pleasant, easy going Friday. At the very least it was only a partial day today and tomorrow.

‡†††††††††‡

The school day was over and Tsubame and I were walking home after a normal day of school. By normal I mean annoying and embarrassing.

"Why does everyone have make fun of me the way they do?" I complained on the walk home.

"Come on Mizuki, it's not that bad." Tsubame said attempting to console me.

"They call me 'Mizuki-hime'. I'm not a princess Tsubame. Why do they continuously suggest that I am? It's embarrassing … and annoying."

"Well first of all, it's the way you act."

"Pardon?"

"See? Like that. The way you talk, your posture, the way you eat, heck, you even have a higher vocabulary than most of our teachers."

"Well, I guess you have a point. But that doesn't mean they have to bother me with the entire day." _Although none of those effects make me a princess._

"I know but you won't have to deal with it too much longer."

"Thank God for that." She just laughed at me. Everyone at school that day and everyday constantly called me 'Mizuki-hime' and, as Tsubame said, they all claim it's because of the way I act and they aren't lying about that but even after I told them to stop they haven't. I don't know why I talk, hold myself, and eat the way a princess most likely would but I just can't help it and when I try not to it just gets worse.

Tsubame and I walked home and headed off to my house. For as long as I can remember she and I spent most of everyday together. After school she would come to my house, on weekends I would go to hers, and holidays and school breaks would be mixed with a little of both. When we got to my house I saw that my dad hadn't arrived home yet. This wasn't odd, after all he _was_ a surgeon and I'd gotten used to his late hours. It was just … today I had the feeling that he would get home early just like when he woke up early. That worries me. Tsubame and I went into the kitchen to make some snacks and then up to my room to do homework. After about an hour or so Tsubame had to go home and as she was leaving we heard my father's car come into the driveway. He was home early. We went out to see him and he was on his phone by the time we got to him he was finished talking to whoever it was.

"Dad? Is everything okay? Why are you home so early?" I asked worried something had gone wrong.

"Mizuki, I'm going to go home now okay." Tsubame said as she walked down the driveway. She knew she wouldn't get a response so she went ahead and headed home while I waited for my father to answer my question.

"There's nothing to worry about Mizuki. They decided that they didn't need me as long as usual and sent me home early." He informed me. Although I could tell he was lying but I couldn't tell weather it was about them sending him home early or that there was nothing to worry about. He sounded a bit nervous and scared at the same time. I decided not push into the matter.

"Oh, alright. Well, then welcome home." I greeted. We went inside and I changed my clothes. I wore a regular red T-shirt, jeans, comfortable tennis shoes, a black sweater, and arm warmers that were meant to keep a marking (that was shaped like a wolf) on my right forearm from being seen.

"Mizuki! I was wondering if maybe you could go to the store for me to pick up some things." I heard my father call from down the stairs.

"Okay, Dad. I'll be right down!" I called back. I got my messenger bag, that I had a feeling I shouldn't empty, from my bed and went downstairs. My father was in the kitchen writing on a small sheet of paper. When he was finished he handed it to me.

"Here are the directions."

"Directions? Dad, it's just the store I've been there before. I don't need a map."

"This is a store you haven't been to before, Mizuki. You'll need directions to this one."

"Alright, fine." I said as I took the directions from his hand.

"That's my girl." He said ruffling the part of my hair that was free of the hair-tie and clip that was still holding my hair up as I walked out the door and he handed me some money.

"Stop it!" I exclaimed pushing his hand from my head.

"I'm sorry." He said softly. I could tell that he was very sad, but I couldn't tell what he was sad about.

"It's alright, Dad. I'll see you later."

"For sure." there sincerity in his words but it seemed like something about my words was troubling him. I had disliked going out that day because it was sunny and hot, or too hot for me at least, but it was for my father so I decided to bear it until I was indoors again.

‡†††††††††‡

I was walking down the street careful to follow my father's directions.

"Mizuki! It's nice seeing you again after only half an hour!" I looked up from the paper and saw Tsubame in front of me, also holding a small sheet of paper that had been written on.

"Tsubame? Where are you going?" I asked her questioningly.

"To some store. My parents decided that they needed something so the sent me to go get it. And you?"

"The same."

"Really? That's kinda' weird. It must be coincidence, right."

"Yeah, maybe." I was doubtful about that though, I had never really been one to think of anything as a coincidence. But that made wonder about the way my dad had been acting even more. For a good while it seemed like we were going to the same place but on the way there this one shop caught my eye. It looked like a traditional Japanese house but it was completely contradictory to it's surroundings, which were skyscrapers. The house seemed to have a lot of power but I could tell that it was created by someone. I had to practically tear my eyes away to look back own at the directions. I saw that I was were the directions were leading me too.

"Mizuki? Is something wrong?" I heard Tsubame ask from my left.

"This is it?" I said asking myself more than her. I looked at her and saw that she was checking her directions as well. I noticed that past the wooden gate in the lawn there was a beautiful woman in a lawn chair under an umbrella. She had long jet black hair (about the same shade as my own). Standing near the lawn chair were two girls, one had short, straight hair that went to just above her shoulders and the other had long, curly hair that were in pig-tails and went all the way down to the ground. I looked at Tsubame who looked up from the directions that had been written down for her.

"Me too. Another coincidence?"

"No. It's too weird to be one." I told her before we were noticed by one of them.

"Hey girls! Come on over here!" the woman called to us. She sounded very young, about the same as she looked, but deep in her voice, so deep I almost didn't catch it, there seemed to be some ancient knowledge in her that had been banned from the knowledge of all others. All that despite her voice sounding as if she was excited about something. When I looked at her more closely she seemed to have power as well, it wasn't psychic, but I didn't know what type of power to call it. Just that there was a mass amount of it. Tsubame and I walked through the opening of the wooded gate that had no door but instead one post on either side. They each had a crescent moon on top of them that had been mirroring each other. I had this odd feeling of déjà vu. I felt like I had seen the front of this shop once before or at least felt it's heavy presence. We came closer to the lawn chair and she began yelling her voice still cheerful. "Watanuki! Why don't you go get some food and drinks for our guests!"

I hadn't noticed that a boy who was about fifteen and in a school uniform had been there as well. He had glasses over his sapphire blue eyes and short black hair. He also had a bit of power, but it was psychic power. Although, I couldn't tell what kind of ability he had. As he was walking towards the door he started grumbling and complaining about being ordered around and how she had someone in her clutches. While he was gone the two girls started dancing around us singing about how their mistress had customers. From them couldn't sense anything but the fact that they were alive and a small amount of power of their own.

"By the way, what are your names?" I heard the woman ask just as the girls stopped singing and dancing.

"My name is Tsubame Maki and my friend is Mizuki Kurosawa. And yours?" Tsubame asked and answered. She always was the most upfront about things and the least polite between us. She was also always the one who never thought things all the way through unless my safety was involved.

"My name is Yûko Ichihara" she told us. Although there was a lie in that. I wondered what would make her want to give us an alias.

"The tea's ready." Watanuki came out before she was able to say anymore

"The tea! The tea!" The two girls cheered as he came closer with our drinks.

"Mmm. It smells nice." Yûko said. The smell was very lovely, "Watanuki, you are an accomplished tea maker." she complimented him, "Don't you agree Mizuki-chan?" she asked looking at me.

"Yes. This tea must have been made by someone very accomplished." I agreed. The girls cheered 'accomplished' as Watanuki told Yûko that her praise wouldn't get more work out of him.

"No! I speak from my heart! I don't even have _this much_ ulterior motive!" Yûko emphasized her word by holding her index finger and her thumb about an inch apart from each other, "However, now that we're all feeling good, I thought the yard could just use the slightest smidgen of weeding. Right?" she continued holding her hand to the left side of her mouth as if that would make the conversation private.

_Didn't she just say she __did not__ have an ulterior motive? And now she's telling him to weed the yard. Sounds pretty contradictory to me. _I thought.

"That's what I call a HUGE ulterior motive!" Watanuki screamed seeming to agree with me. He stopped and looked to Tsubame and I, we both had a look of shock and perhaps a trace of fear on our faces at such a violent reaction, "I'm sorry." He said bowing to us.

"No, it's alright. And you don't need to-" I started but I had been interrupted by rain suddenly falling from the now darkened sky. It took a couple minutes for anybody to react.

"It's sunny out … isn't it?" Tsubame questioned, obviously confused about the sudden weather change. After her question it started to rain even harder and Tsubame and I walked under the umbrella as we were closest to it

"Huh? What? How come all this rain is falling on a sunny day?" Watanuki complained as he ran under the cover of the umbrella.

"The fox spirit, Kitsune, takes a bride." Yûko stated calmly.

"Fox spirit?" both Tsubame and Watanuki questioned simultaneously.

"It's a phrase used to explain rain on a clear day, like this one." I explained. I had looked up many phrases like that one. They were very interesting to me.

"Yes, exactly. On a day like this one could do a 'Kyôchô'." Yûko continued.

"And what is that?" Watanuki asked.

"Maru? Moro?"

"Here!" the two girls, who I now know are Maru and Moro, exclaimed while holding up what looked like a compact mirror. They gave it to Yûko who held it over the table towards the three of us.

"You can use any mirror you want. A hand mirror, a compact. You hold it by your heart, close your eyes, and consider the first words you hear to be an omen." Watanuki seemed amazed at this, "It's a variation on the divination they call Tsujiura. In Tsujiura you put a mirror to your heart, walk down a path, and take the first thing you hear as an omen. On a day where the fox spirit takes a bride, the sun-drenched rain adds power to a Kyôchô divination and increases its accuracy. What you get is an omen that is almost a certainty." she explained looking at us. I couldn't help but pay attention to the 'almost' at the tail end of her explanation, "Want to give it a try?" she asked looking at me.

"I'm sorry, but I'd rather keep whatever lies in the future a surprise." I answered, "But maybe Watanuki-san would like to try." I suggested looking at him. He took the mirror from Yûko and she gave him the instructions.

"Close your eyes, and open your ears. You needn't concentrate or even think. Just listen for the first sound you hear." she said. It wasn't hard to tell it was working. I could almost see the power of divination surrounding him as it was letting him lend it willfully and peacefully. There was no color, but it was something that, when you saw it, you didn't need to name a color to know what it was. Who knows what it told him. I certainly didn't but the look in Yûko's eyes told me she knew exactly what it said. If anything what he said when the power flowed away from him and back into the sky where it belonged wasn't anymore of a clue than I'd thought it might be. Tsubame seemed disappointed that there weren't any clues in his words though. Perhaps I should have asked her if _she_ wanted to listen.

"Was that it? Um … I don't understand a word of it!" he said looking behind him, at us. He seemed disappointed as well, but he was the one heard it. So his reason had been understandable. Yûko's demeanor suddenly changed from laid-back to cryptic as she stood up from the lawn chair.

"I see." she said, "It's today."

"No, what I mean is-" he tried to explain.

"We'll have to prepare. Prepare for their coming." she said. She turned to me, "Mizuki-chan, I have a gift for you."

"Really? For me?" I didn't understand why she would have something for me. Did my father arrange for me to receive something without me knowing?

"It your birthday, isn't it?"

"Well, yes. But how did you-" I was interrupted when she pull out a silver charm bracelet. It had many symbols on it, many of which I couldn't find any meaning behind. One charm was two spherical gems on the same ring, one was ruby red and the other was sapphire blue. That one was directly on the left side of the clasp. And on the left of that one was a tiger followed by many others. There seemed to be some power around it too. I wasn't sure what kind of power I was supposed to call it, but it _was_ power. I just couldn't tell if it very strong or very weak. I was guessing on strong though.

"Hold out your wrist, I'll put it on for you." she ordered. I did as I was told. There was nothing in her voice, eye, expression, or even her presence that told I should distrust her. She wrapped it around my wrist I noticed the aura of power surrounding the bracelet grew and the moment she clasped it seemed to latch on to my skin and dig itself inside. When it was finished attaching itself to me, I felt extremely dizzy. The world turned circles and then finally became even more black the onyx stone.

‡†††††††††‡

I caught Mizuki as she fell backward so that she wouldn't hit the ground. I looked up at Yûko with anger and resentment. Those emotions started clouding my outer senses, I could only fully focus on Yûko, I vaguely heard Watanuki behind me shouting Mizuki's name in worry and concern.

"What did you do to Mizuki?" I demanded. I couldn't help but be angry about what just happened. It seemed like she hurt her. No one was going to get away with hurting Mizuki, no one.

"Don't worry Tsubame-chan. Mizuki-chan isn't hurt, she fainted from mental exhaustion." she explained. But her explanation only confused me more than what I just saw.

"Mental exhaustion?" I questioned. I didn't understand, how could she have passed out from mental exhaustion if there was nothing to be mentally exhausted about? It didn't make any sense, "How?"

"Mizuki-chan is able to sense the power of anything that has magical or psychic power. She sensed the power in this shop, the power in me, in Watanuki, in Maru and Moro, as well as in that bracelet. It was a lot for her to handle in just a few minutes" she explained, it made more sense to me now, why hadn't I thought about that before, "But anyway, we'll have to prepare. Prepare for their coming." she said now looking at nothing in particular, maybe at some far off object, she looked to me again, "If you could have a wish, what would it be?"

"To stay with, be able to protect, and help Mizuki" I answered immediately.

‡†††††††††‡

Watanuki and I had been standing outside the shop, waiting for Yûko to come out. Before she went inside she was going on about preparing for someone coming here. Did she do this for all her customers? Not that it really mattered I was more worried about Mizuki. She hadn't woken up yet and I wondered if it was because we were still at the shop. Watanuki had helped me pick her so that I could carry her piggy-back style, which was the most comfortable way to carry her. At least, easiest to carry her for long periods of time. Her head was resting in the right side of my neck, hiding that hair ornament of hers. It was still raining, which made my situation worse. It would have been bad if she got sick from this. I decided that I would dry her off if she hadn't woken up by the time I got her home.

When Yûko finally came out she was wearing this weird dress that had a crescent moon as it's theme and her hair was up but still was long enough to reach to her butt.

"Yûko-san? What is that get up?" Watanuki asked her.

"I'm prepared for the children to come." she answered not looking at us, "Here they come." I went a few feet in front of her and was about to tell her she should at least look at us when talking to us, but I noticed this blob-like thing coming from the sky. Directly above me. I got out of the way, stepping a few feet to the right. When it finally touch the ground it seemed to pop like a bubble. Inside the bubble was a boy a couple years younger that Mizuki and I with brown hair and amber eyes. In his arms was a girl around the same age as him with light brown hair and she looked unconscious and very sick. I couldn't recognize their clothes from any culture, but from their style I could tell they lived in a very hot place.

"Are you the space-time witch?" he asked urgently.

"I have been called that." she answered.

"Would you please …" he seemed like he couldn't finish his sentence, and he started again, "I need you to save Sakura!" he finally exclaimed.

"I've been waiting for the two of you. You're not the same ones, but you are the same of a different world."

"I was told to tell you everything! And if I came here you might have a way to help me save Sakura!" Yûko knelt down to them and put her hand just over the girls head.

"This child's name is Sakura, isn't it?" she asked him.

"Yes."

"And you?"

"I'm Syaoran."

"This child has lost something very precious." she stated as if knowing more that she seemed to.

"Yes." he replied weakly.

"And that something has been scattered to many different worlds. If nothing is done this child will die" she continued add a heavy intensity to the air and Syaoran pulled Sakura closer to him, "Watanuki?" she called. So much had been going on I almost forgot about the boy.

"Y-yes?" he stammered shocked at everything going on about as much as I was.

"Go to our treasure room, there is something I need you to bring back." she ordered him and then turned to Syaoran, "You wish to save this child?"

"Yes!"

"There _is_ a price."

"I will pay _any_ price I can!" there was so much determination in his voice and eyes that, even though I didn't know him, I was kinda proud of him. Suddenly, there was a change in the air. Similar to the change when the blob carrying Syaoran and Sakura.

"Here they come." Yûko said again just before two more blobs showed up. The one closest to me cam from the sky and the one on the other side of Syaoran came from the ground. When they revealed the people inside them it was two men that were a perfect contrast with each other. The man closest to me was wearing a white and blue coat, and had blonde hair and eyes that could shame the blue sky. He was standing up straight and was holding an ornate staff. The other one was wearing black and red, and black hair and crimson eyes. He was crouching low to the ground and was holding a sword, he was obviously some sort of warrior. But they both were definitely not from this world.

"Are you the dimension witch?" the blonde said and the same time the warrior spoke.

"Who the hell are you?" their personality differences immediately showed themselves. They glanced at each other for an instant and the Yûko began to speak again.

"Please give me your names first."

"Me? I'm Kurogane. What are these weird buildings all around? I mean … what _is_ this place?" the warrior introduced and asked. The way he said it was almost rude but she didn't seem to care.

"It's called Japan." Yûko answered.

"Eh? My country's called Japan, too." He said in a confused rudeness that I never thought could come from someone combined before now.

"Yes. A different Japan."

"I'm not getting any of this!" he said standing up. I had to admit, it was confusing but he could have been more polite about it.

"And you?" Yûko asked turning to the blonde.

"The wizard of Seresu. Fai D. Flourite." he said politely introducing himself.

"Do you know where you are?" she asked him.

"Yes. A place where any wish can be granted if a suitable price is paid." Fai answered. I wondered why she hadn't mentioned it to Mizuki and I when we showed up.

"That's exactly it. And so the reason why all of you are here is because each of you has a wish."

"My home world…" the two men started saying the same things but then their words were different and sounds like jumbled up sounds. But I could vaguely hear Fai saying 'is the place I do _not_ want to be" since he was closer. I guessed Kurogane asked for the opposite since he was saying something different from Fai. Kurogane glared at Fai with a sideways glance.

"That is a tall order for both of you. No… for all _four _of you perhaps." Yûko started, she seemed to be including me into all this, "Even if you offered the most precious things you own, none of you has enough to pay … but if all four paid together, you may just be able to afford it." she said confusing me and others.

"What kind of _crap_ are you spouting?" Kurogane said just getting even more rude each time he spoke.

"Mr. Black, can you keep you insults down?" Fai asked at the side.

"I'm _not _"Mr. Black"! I'm Kurogane!" He yelled at the wizard.

"All four of your wishes are the same." Yûko said. But what did my wish have to do with traveling between worlds, "You want to go to many worlds in order to restore the memory of this child." she said to Syaoran, "You want to return to your own world." she said to the tall warrior, "You want to go to different worlds to avoid returning to your own." she said to Fai, then she looked to me and said, "And then there's your wish." she started addressing all of us again, "You have different reasons, but the method is the same. Travel to different dimensions… that is what you need. Each of you individually cannot make that wish happen. However, if the four of you combine payment for one wish, then you can afford it."

"Then what would _my_ payment be?" Kurogane asked.

"Your sword." she said. The sword which he had out earlier was now resting on his shoulder.

"Wha-?" he exclaimed, " I'd _never_ sell away Ginryû!" he yelled.

"Fine! Instead you will wander this world looking like a costume-contest loser, and get picked up by the police for carrying an unlawful sword, and get plastered all over the TV for being a freak! Is that what you want?" Yûko said while playfully poking him. He seemed very confused by many of her words. Particularly 'police' and 'TV', "You realize that you are trapped here, and I am the only person in the world who can get you out?" she asked with a knowing smile.

"That's _got_ to be a lie!" he exclaimed loudly.

"It's all true." Fai told the warrior

"You're kidding!" Kurogane said with Fai just laughing.

"What will you do?" she asked him holding her hand out. He seemed to thing about it for a short while.

"Damn it!" he yelled putting the sword in it's sheath, "When I am free from this _curse_, I am coming back for it!" he shouted, thrusting it towards her. The sword was lifted by what seemed like pure energy. But if a wizard exists I'd say it was lifted by magic.

"Your price is your marking." she said turning to look at Fai. I didn't see his reaction but he tensed up becoming like he was nervous or something.

"I don't suppose this staff would do instead?" he asked holding up the staff in his hands. It was taller than it's owner and the top of it there was a gem that didn't look like it was held be anything.

"It won't." she replied he seemed disappointed, "I told you, the price is the thing you value most."

"I guess I have no choice." After he said that a black marking lifted through his clothes from his back. It's shape reminded me a phoenix. It floated over to Yûko's left and the sword was at her right by that same energy that I couldn't see. Then she turned to me.

"Your price, Tsubame, is that you will never be able to set foot in the birthplace of the child your carrying." I didn't understand the price she gave me, but I agreed anyway.

_Her birthplace? How would that be my price? What kind of importance could Mizuki's birthplace have to me?_ I thought and she turned to Syaoran.

"What about you? Now is the time to hand over you item of highest value. And you will be able to travel the worlds."

"Fine!" he said.

"You realize that I haven't named your price yet."

"Yes!"

"The only thing I can do is send you to other worlds. Finding the child's memories is something _you_ will have to do."

"Fine!"

"I like your attitude." she said to Syaoran. Watanuki finally came out of the shop carrying two odd looking creatures, "Here they are." she said. When Watanuki got closer she took the white creature from his arms and left the black one, "The name of this young one is Mokona Modoki. Mokona will lead you through the worlds."

"Hey, you got an extra. Give it to me. I'll go home with that." Kurogane said holding out his hand to Watanuki.

"No. That's how we keep in contact. The only power this one has is to stay in communication with Mokona." Yûko said, "Mokona will take you to different dimensions, but there is no way to control which dimension. For that reason, only fate will decide when your wishes will be granted. However, there is no coincidence in the world. What _is_ there is 'Hitsuzen'. And what brought you together was also 'Hitsuzen'. Syaoran your price is … your relationship. The thing you value most is your relationship with her. So that is your price."

"My price? But how-" Syaoran started.

"Even if this child's memories are completely restored your relationship with her will never be the same again. So what is she to you?" She asked him.

"A childhood friend … and the princess of a country … and a girl who is precious to me!" he answered clutching her tighter to him.

"I see. However, if you want to accept Mokona, that relationship will end. Even if you retrieve all of her memories the one memory that you will never retrieve will be her memory of you. That is my price. Will you still pay it?" she told him making the air heavier than she did before.

"Lets go. I will _not_ let Sakura die!" his words were full of his determination. She seemed to accept this and continued.

"Travel between worlds is more difficult than you imagine. There are a wide variety of worlds. For example, the worlds these three come from. You can tell just from their clothes, can't you? All of them come from different worlds than yours. People you know. People you've met on your world … they've developed under completely different conditions on other worlds. You may meet different versions of the same person time after time on different worlds. And just because that person is nice to you on one world doesn't mean you will find an ally on the next. You'll find worlds where you can't communicate - where even common sense doesn't work. Scientific development, standard of living, laws … all change with the world. There are worlds full of criminals, worlds of liars, worlds locked in constant wars … and you must live through them all. It will be a journey in which you won't know where you are nor how close you are to collecting all of the fractured pieces of memory. That said … are you still determined to seem through?"

"Yes!" Syaoran answered.

"Sincerity and determination. No matter what a person wants to attempt, those are needed. And it seems that you are well provides with both. And so … you may go." as she was finishing her sentence great, big wings appeared on Mokona. Some type of circle appeared under it. It opened it's mouth and I felt myself being sucked in by it.

‡†††††††††‡

Yûko looked up to the sky as the rain began to clear from it and the travelers.

"I wish you four the best of fortune on your journey!" she hoped for the four travelers


	2. The First Day in Hanshin

I'm so sorry about how long this took. Please, no one hold that against me.

Disclaimer: The only things in the story that belong to me are Mizuki, Tsubame, Mizuki's father, Kazuki (who will be introduced later), and one currently unnamed character.

* * *

Chapter 2

The First Day in Hanshin

"_For beauty is nothing_

_but the beginning of terror we can just_

_barely endure,_

_and we admire it so because it calmly disdains_

_to destroy us."_

_**-Rainer Maria Rilke,**_

"_**The First Elegy,"**__**Duino Elegies**_

Shortly after coming into the next world some guy named Sorata took us to what looked like a hotel. Then he left us alone in a room after helping lay Syaoran, who had passed out and was still clinging to Sakura, down on a mat and helping me lay Mizuki on a similar one in a separate room. There wasn't much talking between as Kurogane was brooding in a corner and Fai was attempting to dry off the two children. I was thinking and worrying about Mizuki.

_We're away from the shop now. If what Yûko-san said is true, why hasn't she woken up yet?_ I thought, _If it's true that it was just the psychic and magical power that she felt is such a short time then shouldn't she have woken up once we got away from the shop? Or do Mokona and Fai have more of an impacting presence than I'm giving them credit for? _

I was taken away from my thoughts when I noticed Syaoran sit up suddenly calling Sakura's name. He must not have realized that he was still holding on to her. Fai explained that he had tried to her off since she got very wet.

"Even while you slept, you wouldn't let the girl go." he said with a smile, but there was something about it that didn't fit with his face, it looked too forced, "So you er " he continued obviously because he didn't know his name. While he was talking Mokona was dancing and saying 'praise me'

"Call me Syaoran." he told Fai.

"My name is pretty long. You can just call me Fai." the wizard introduced politely, "And Mr. Black over there. What'll we call you?"

"I am _not_ Mr. Black!" the warrior exclaimed loudly, "I am Kurogane." It didn't occur to me before, but now that I heard his name more clearly I realized that the first part of his name was the same as the first part of Mizuki's last name.

"Kurogane, huh? So what works? Kuro-chan? Kurorin?" Fai asked completely ruining his polite credibility with me; I lost interest in their conversation and turned to look at Syaoran and Sakura. He was feeling her body temperature and he looked even more worried than he was before. Fai suddenly put his hand into Syaoran's cloak and surprised the boy very much. Then again, it kinda freaked me out too, with how sudden it was.

"What do you think you're _doing_?" Kurogane said stating my thoughts. Then Fai pulled out a beautiful white feather that had a pink design on it.

"Is _this_ what a piece of memory looks like for this child?" he asked holding it up. Syaoran got a shocked expression on his face, "It was stuck to you. Only one though." he continued as Mokona jumped towards him. He let go of the feather and it floated towards the Sakura.

"This is one piece of Sakura's memories!" he exclaimed as her body absorbed it, "Her body is a little warmer." he sound relieved. I understand why. If I were in his position, I would want to make sure Mizuki was alright.

"If you hadn't had that feather, it might have been a problem." Fai said with that forced looking smile still plastered on his face.

"By coincidence, one stuck to my clothes" He started before my interruption.

"There is no coincidence in the world. Or at least that's what Yûko-san said." I said speaking for the first time since Syaoran and Sakura had shown up at the shop. It occurred to me that Mizuki would probably be very shocked that I had hardly spoken this whole time. She said that I always talked too much.

"And so my guess is without thinking, you grabbed it yourself. In order to save the girl." Fai said, "Of course I'm just guessing all this!" he continued cheerfully.

_Guess or not, it doesn't make sense. Wouldn't he have known if he grabbed the feather when he grabbed it? _I thought to myself, _Maybe Mizuki can help me to figure it out when she wakes up._

"Who the hell are you anyway!" Kurogane yelled while staring at me with his red eyes.

"My name is Tsubame." I said annoyed by how rude this man is turning out to be, but ignoring it for now, "Now, the question is how can we find other feather?" I said.

"Mokona knows!" the little creature said jumping up excitedly.

"Huh?" Syaoran questioned.

"That feather gave out _really_ big waves!" the thing explained, "So when a feather is close, Mokona will feel the big waves! And Mokona will be like …" Mokona opened its eyes, which had been closed until now, wide, "… _this_!" Mokona's face seemed to scare Kurogane a bit. Or at the very least, give him some shock that almost looked like a heart attack.

"Well, it looks like we have a way. If we get close, Mokona will let us know." Fai said as Kurogane caught his breath.

"Would you do that? Tell us when we're near a feather?" Syaoran asked.

"Leave that to me!" Mokona said cheerfully.

"Thank you!"  
"Search or don't search. That's up to you." we all looked to Kurogane as he spoke, "It's got nothing to do with me! I'm here to get back to my own world. That's the only reason I'm here. Don't expect me to stick my neck out for you. Don't expect me to help you. I won't do it!"

"Right. That is _my_ mission here." Syaoran said, "I'll do my best not to cause you any trouble." By the look on his face I could tell that the boy's words surprised the older man and he looked away as if he was embarrassed with some reddish pick tint on his face. Fai laughed before he took his turn to talk.

"Syaoran, you are so _serious_!" I started questioning his sanity at this point.

"Well? What about you?" Kurogane asked while looking at the blond.

"Mm?"

"Are you going to help the brat out?" the warrior clarified. The wizard looked like he was thinking about this for a second, although the amount of time it took him told me he already made up his mind.

"I suppose so. _My_ most important mission is to _not_ return to my world." him saying that again made me wonder what was so bad in his world that he wouldn't want to ever go back, "So if it doesn't threaten my life sure, I'll help out. I've got nothing better to do. And you Tsubame-chan?" he said looking towards me.

"Honestly, I'm here because Mizuki is here. But I know her enough to know what she would do. She enjoys helping others if she can, so I'll help as much as I can also." almost directly after my words the door near us opened and Sorata and his wife were on the other side.

"Yo! So most of you are awake now!" he said Syaoran must have tensed a bit, "Hey! No need to get all tense! You came from Yûko-san, right?" he asked. Having not heard her actual name Syaoran didn't know who Sorata was talking about.

"Yûko-san?" he questioned as Arashi got blankets from a nearby compartment.

_Just who did they think that I was talking about when __**I**__ said that?_ I thought annoyed, _Were they even really paying any attention?_

"You know, the Girl Witch. The Dimension Witch the Far East Witch she has a lot of names." Sorata explained. His explanation only made me wonder if she had given Mizuki and I her real name.

_From what I've seen of her, I highly doubt it. But, like always, between Mizuki and I, I'll be the only one that is bothered by it._ I thought. Arashi offered Syaoran a blanket for Sakura.

"Here." she said handing it to him. I could tell from the beginning that she was a woman of few words.

"Oh! Thank you!" the boy replied gratefully.

"I'm Sorata Arisugawa." he told the boy as he covered the sleeping princess.

"I'm Arashi." said his wife. Sorata suddenly went into some sort of blissful daze.

"Just to let you know. She's my wife and the woman I love." he said as she gave each of us some tea, "I call her my 'honey'! Just make sure you've burned that into your hearts." this sudden daze continued as Arashi handed Syaoran a cup of tea and he introduced himself. Then he turned to Kurogane, "By which I mean that if you lay a finger on her, you'll die horribly." he said with a voice that was so cheerful it was almost eerie.

"Why do you say that only to _me_?" the warrior yelled. The man had yelled so much at this point it was a wonder both Sakura and Mizuki didn't wake up and he hadn't lost his voice.

"Nori! Nori!" I guess the man in the blissful daze was trying to say something like 'don't worry about it.', "But I wasn't kidding!" he said with that eerie cheer of his.

"I won't touch her!" Kurogane shouted. Sorata's mood changed and he started talking again.

"Now," he said as Mokona jumped into his hand, "I figure you went to the witch lady, and got this" he said pointing to Mokona, "from her to get here, right?"

"Mokona Modoki!" the little creature said, telling our host its name. Sorata asked the little thing if it was okay to just call it Mokona. It seemed to be okay with it.

"I heard the whole story from the man there." he said referring to Fai, "Anyway; this is your lucky day."

"Umm in what way?" Fai asked.

"Mokona has no idea which is the next world, right?" Sorata said while walking towards the other side of the room, "So it's a happy chance that brought you to this world first of all. Because this …" he said opening a window, "… is the Hanshin Republic!" revealing a city of lights.

‡†††††††††‡

All I could see in the black space I was in was a flurry of multi-colored feathers. Feathers of crimson red, smoky gray, sterling silver, snow white, and raven black were everywhere. I remembered that this was the same place I talked to Tomoyo for the first time. She told me that it was a dream world somehow created separate from the actual Dream World. At the time I wondered just who created it and how.

"Mizuki, as always, it's nice to see you again." I heard Tomoyo say as she appeared in front of me.

"Likewise, Tomoyo-hime." I replied. I loved my conversations with her. Other than Tsubame, she was my only real friend. Although every time I said that, it sounded wrong. It felt like there was someone I was missing, but I could never figure it out.

"Mizuki, I think we've know each other long enough for you to call me Tomoyo." I was about to protest but she changed to subject before I could say anymore, "I took your advice, by the way. I think he took it well."

"Took my advice? Did you have to punish him or did he finally listen to you?" I asked. Her silence was enough of an answer, "You had to punish him? Jeez, I'm sorry. I know he's important to you. Out of curiosity, how exactly did you punish him?" I asked.

"You'll find out soon. By the way, I don't think I've told you this before, his name is Kurogane."

"Then the first part of his name is the same as the first part of my last name." The moment I said it I knew that this whole 'name similarity' was going to cause a few problems for me.

"Yes it is, maybe that means that you two have some things in common." The way she said and her expression (plus the fact that it was in her mind) told me that she thought so too.

"Yeah, maybe." I said as the temperature of, where ever I was, plummeted.

‡†††††††††‡

Sorata had, for some reason, decided to tell us about this country using a hand puppet that had obviously been made to look like him. Same brown hair and hair style, same eye color and eye shape and such. Although it wasn't the way _I_ would teach someone about something, I had to admit it kept my attention.

"This is the Hanshin Republic. The best of island nations. We are surrounded by seas on all sides." I wanted to say 'isn't the definition of and island a land mass surrounded by water on all sides?' but I decided not to, "We get the odd hurricane, but we hardly ever have earthquakes. We have several trading partners across the seas, and we export like crazy!" next he went to a list of the four seasons and the things that are 'best' in each one, "We have four seasons. Right now, we're in fall. The season where rice tastes its best!" next, he pointed a few small pictures, "The main staple is wheat flour. And our sauce is famous! We have the Hanshin Republic Constitution and Rule of Law! And by law, we never make war on other countries." just from that one law I knew Mizuki would like this place, " Modes of transport: car, bicycle, motorcycle, train, boat, plane, and one would consider a _baby carriage_ to be one form of transport, right honey?" the woman, who also had a look-alike hand puppet said nothing and he just continued now pointing at a map with a tiger shaped landmass on it, "The shape of the island is thus. Because the similarity to a tiger, people call us the tiger country. Of course, the Hanshin Republic uses the image of a tiger quite a bit. Our currency is the koko. There are one-koko coins, 100,000 koko bills, and the tiger head is the symbol of the country. And the logo for our baseball team is the same!" I think the only people in our group who knew what baseball even was would have been Mokona, Mizuki, and myself, and so far, this world didn't seem all that different from ours, "This year, the team has some really great prospects! Some of the best players in the world!"

" Sir! I have a question!" Fai said raising his hand, and I suddenly felt like I was in class again.

"Yes? Fai-kun?" Sorata said calling on him, making this feel even more like it was a classroom.

"Does everyone in this country have an accent like yours, Sorata-san?" he asked, referring to his way of talking, while I heard Kurogane ask about baseball.

"Aww, don't be so formal! Call me Sora-chan! My accent is unique to me. It's an older version of our language." Syaoran seemed interested in this.

"Yours is language they used in the past?" he asked.

"That's right! Nowadays hardly anyone uses this language. I'm a history teacher, and I'm firmly against allowing all the old ways to fade away."

"You're a history teacher?" the boy asked. He was getting more interested as the conversation.

"I take it you have an interest in history"

"Yes! In my world I used to work on archaeological digs."

"Then I'd say we have something in common."

"And I have one more question!" Fai said with an almost too cheery tone, "Now, exactly where are we? Who owns this room?" I wanted to know that too. After all, we'd whisked away with no explanation at all.

"This is an empty room in an old, traditional apartment house that my honey and I manage." our host said as he went into that bliss again. I looked behind me to see that Kurogane had fallen asleep. Not that I blamed him, going to sleep seemed like a good idea, "You! Wake up!" Sorata yelled. I something looked like it hit Kurogane on the back of his head. It was very surprising and everyone, including myself and excluding Sorata and Arashi, we all tensed up.

"What was that?" Kurogane yelled, Syaoran immediately got in a position to protect Sakura, and Fai and I stood up, "I didn't feel an enemy! Who did that?" standing up and looking around the room and he stared Sorata down, "Bastard! _You_ threw that didn't you?" he growled at him.

"You were in a corner. If he threw anything, it wouldn't hit you there. It had to come from above." Fai told him. I don't think that Kurogane was ever one to think things like that through.

"What? It was my _kudan_, what else?" Sorata said looking at us strangely.

"'Kudan'?" all four of us repeated.

"You don't know? Sure you don't! You all come from different worlds! You _wouldn't_ know!" he grabbed a dry erase marker and started writing a word on it, "Everyone in this world has a Kudan attached. Here's how it's written in kanji." he said as he finished writing it.

"Ah I see." Kurogane said.

"Yeah, me too." I said.

_It makes sense. I mean, didn't he say he was also from Japan? Our written language must be more or less the same._ I thought.

"I don't see at all!" Fai said while waving his hand dismissively and smiling that 'used-too-much-to-be real' smile.

"Mokona can read!" the creature cheered.

"That's really great, Mokona!" Fai said as he patted the top of Mokona's head.

"Can you, Syaoran?"

"Yeah. More or less." he responded.

"Kurogane, Tsubame, and Syaoran's worlds use kanji, but Fai's probably doesn't. But you can understand what I say, and I understand you." Sorata said. He must have been in deep thought of the reasons for this.

"Now what kind of technique is this kudan? And you used the word attached." Kurogane asked them showing, for the first time since we'd met, his way of planning a fight.

"Even if you come from another world, once you enter this one, a Kudan will be attached." she walked over to and knelt down beside the sleeping Sakura, "Do you mind if I call her Sakura-san?" she asked Syaoran.

"That's fine." he relied.

"I cannot say where Sakura-san's memory went. However, if someone had picked it up it will become the cause of a fight." the boy's reaction to this was one of shock and maybe even worry, Arashi then looked to the two older men, "You've lost your method of battle." she told them. It didn't sound like a question. It sounded like a statement, like she was positive.

_The only way she could possibly know something like that is if she was like Mizuki. Now that I think of that, when she wakes up I'm going to have to talk to her about whether or not she want to tell these guys._ I thought.

"How did you know?" the blond asked. Kurogane seemed stunned speechless for the first time since he showed up at Yûko's. Everything else that had shocked him he reacted to with rude words of some sort.

"My honey used to be a Shinto religion Miko. She possesses spiritual powers." Sorata answered for his wife. Syaoran looked like he was a bit amazed, "Well, she's retired ever since she married me." he said.

_Maybe she's not like Mizuki then._ I thought. As far as I had known what Mizuki was called was something different. Then our host went into the state of pure bliss again.

"Her beauty when she was dressed as a Miko was a God-send!" he said.

"Actually," Fai said continuing what the conversation was originally about, "I _did_ give my magic power to the dimension witch."

"And I handed my sword to that bitch!" Kurogane said angrily.

_Alright buster, if you use that kind of profanity around Mizuki you're going to hear from me!_ I thought. I desperately wanted to say it. I _really_ did, but I decided against it, it would have been pretty rude of me. Arashi then looked to Syaoran and I.

"It wasn't any sort of power that I gave her." he said, "I never had magic or weapons or anything like that from the start."

"Same here." I said.

"That may have been your good luck." she told us, "There are kudan in this world. When it comes time to fight, that kudan should be able to help."

"Then this kudan was originally meant for battle?" Syaoran asked curiously.

"What you use it for or how you use it is all up to you." Sorata explained, "One look can answer a hundred questions. If you want to see what your kudan is the only thing to do is see it with your own eyes." he turned with a smile and said: "Now, I've pretty much explained everything to know about this country."

"He did?" Kurogane asked.

"Well, you were asleep through part of it. For all you know he did." I told the warrior. His response was glaring at me with his crimson red eyes. It was a bit intimidating, but I wasn't gonna' let him know that.

"Well?" Sorata said as he looked at Mokona, "What do you think? Do you think that Sakura-chan would have a feather on this world?" he asked the little round creature who was in Syaoran's hands.

"Sure does! It is still a long, long way away, but this country has one." it said.

"Shall we find this feather of yours?" the history teacher asked him.

"Yes!" he said just as determined as he was at Yûko's shop.

"And you three, do you feel the same?" Sorata asked referring to Fai, Kurogane, and I.

"I might as well." the wizard answered with a smile.

"I would love too." I answered. I knew Mizuki was going to want to help, so I decided I would help her to help the princess and the archeologist. Kurogane made a sideways glance towards the round, white (not to mention adorable) Mokona.

"If I said I wanted to leave, would you do it white thing?" he asked it.

"No!" Mokona said, "Mokona will not leave this country until Mokona finds the feather!" at this the warrior turned away and glared at nothing with irritation.

"Thank you Mokona!" Syaoran told it thankfully.

"Fine. While you're on this world, I'll vouch for you." our host said as he stood up, "I owe Yûko-san a favor." he said holding his wife's hand. She looked like she had a slight blush on her face. It looked kinda cute, "This is an apartment building. We've got room. You can use these rooms until you go to your next world." he said while pushing the white board out of the room with one hand and still holding Arashi's hand with the other.

"Thank you very much!" Syaoran said.

"It's after midnight already. It's time to sleep. I'll show you to your rooms. Fai and Kurogane, you don't mind sharing, do you?" he asked them. Even though he was asking it seemed like he was telling them that they didn't have a choice in the matter.

"Not at all!" the blonde wizard said.

"What was that?" Kurogane exclaimed with fury. Then Sorata looked at me.

"Tsubame, do you mind if those two sleep in the same room as you and Mizuki?" he asked. This time he seem to be actually giving me the choice.

"It's alright with me," I told him, "I mean, I'm fine with it so long as they don't try anything funny with Mizuki." I answered. It looked like that grabbed the attention of the three men.

"You mean that if one of those two try something they'll have to answer to you." he asked.

"No, I mean that if they try anything they better hope I get to them before _she_ does. I might be protective over her, but she _is_ able to protect herself to some extent, and she doesn't kid when it comes to her personal space." I replied dismissively as I walked into the room that Mizuki was sleeping in. Her back was to the door and her black hair (I noticed that Kurogane, Yûko and Mizuki all had the same shade of pitch black hair) was all behind her. I couldn't see the hair ornament from where I was standing, but that was because she was lying on the side that it was on. I wasn't paying attention to whatever Sorata said. I only knew that he was talking. Mokona jumped off of Kurogane's shoulder and waved 'bye-bye' to me because it decided to sleep with Syaoran that night. I waved back at the creature as the door closed. The two men were unexpectedly quiet after that, but I didn't have to be psychic to tell that there was still a lot of distrust among the three of us and that was to blame.

‡†††††††††‡

"So she put that bracelet on you and then you passed out?" Tomoyo asked me. I told her about when Tsubame and I went to Yûko's shop.

"Yeah, although I wouldn't worry about it, it was probably just from exhaustion. I sensed a lot more psychic power and some other power more than I ever have." I answered.

"The other power is magical power." she said.

"Really?" she nodded at my question, "So I can sense psychic and magical power?"

"Yes you can!" she said while laughing, although it sounded like a giggle, as if it was funny that it had taken me so long to understand something she considered simple. I didn't get angry with for it though, "Well, it's about time I get going." she said after she'd stopped her giggling.

"Well, it was nice speaking with you again." I said knowing that there was nothing I could (or rather should) do or say to make her stay a little longer. She did have a big job as a priestess and princess of her Japan. Well, she called it Nihon.

"At least _I_ warned you before I left, Mizuki." she teased as she faded away. She was always teasing me like that even if she already knew the reason.

"That wasn't my fault! That was my stupid alarm clock!" I exclaimed even though it was too late and I could no longer sense Tomoyo in the dream. When I was finally positive that she didn't hear what I said I sighed and started thinking about what had happened before I passed out and why I hadn't woken up yet.

"If it was the shear amount of power I'd sensed, both psychic and magical, that had put me out and we really were away from it then why haven't I woken up yet? Is there another source of power that I'm sensing even though I'm not awake or does it take a while to get over the sensing overload?" I sighed.

_This is hard to figure out, at least on my own. Too bad I can't ask dad or that one fortuneteller woman I met. What was her name again? I can't remember. Maybe there's a way I can ask Yûko-san when I finally wake up. She seems to know about this kind of thing._ I thought. I noticed that it was colder than when Tomoyo had been here. Suddenly, it went from a bit chilly to freezing cold. Although, this 'freezing cold' felt foreign, just like Yûko's shop, it felt as if I'd felt this kind of cold before. It felt like the only reason it had bothered me was because I'd been away from it for so , I sensed that someone … or something … had appeared behind me.

‡†††††††††‡

The next morning, after everybody had woken up, the guys were all wearing lent clothes that were lent to them. Kurogane was, unsurprisingly, wearing all black. Black t-shirt, black pants, and black boots. Fai was wearing a light colored shirt with three quarter sleeves and jeans, Syaoran was wearing a short-sleeved shirt that reminded me of a sweat-shirt and loose cargo pants. I was wearing the same green t-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes from the day before since they had been washed and dried from the rain. We were outside and Sorata was pretty much telling us not to be lazy.

"You guys won't get anything done sitting in your rooms," he said, "You have to start your search for Sakura's feather someplace! So get out into the neighborhood and see."

_Not that I want to insult our host or anything but this guy just seems __way__ too enthusiastic._ I thought,_ Wait … scratch that. Fai and that creature are the 'too-enthusiastic' ones._

As if on cue Fai and Mokona, who was sitting on the wizard's shoulder, both gave a happy-go-lucky 'okaaay! Syaoran gave his response while Kurogane and I gave none. Although, I don't think our reasons were the same. I mean we both looked bored, but he didn't look the same kind of bored that I was. He seemed like he was 'man-I-wish-there-was-a-fight-I-could-get-into-right-now' bored as opposed to my 'I-really-hate-this-class' bored. So we had different levels of two different types of bored.

Sorata looked as his watch as said that his class was about to start.

"If you walk around, I think you'll begin to figure what this kudan talk is about." he told us while looking at Syaoran.

"All right." the boy replied as he nodded. I noticed that he looked over to the window of the room that Sakura was sleeping in.

"I'll stand by Sakura-san's side for you." Arashi told him.

"Thank you." he answered.

"I'll watch over Mizuki-san as well." She told me.

"Thank you. I know she'll be in good hands." I answered.

_If I didn't think so in the first place I would never leave her alone here. _I thought.

"Is the white thing coming along, too?" Kurogane asked.

"Mokona isn't a white thing! Mokona is Mokona!" the rabbit looking creature said jumping from Fai's shoulder to Kurogane.

"You have to take Mokona or you'll pass the feather by and never know! Don't worry nobody will give Mokona a second thought," Sorata said as the two men and the creature had a conversation of their own, "What I mean is, this world is used to weird sights."

"Huh?" Syaoran and I said at the same time.

"Now …" Sorata said, "… take this." he said pulling out a coin purse that was shaped like a frog and then gave it to Syaoran, "There's enough for lunch in there, so the four of you should take your time and make friends."

"Why's he giving it to the _kid_?" Kurogane asked over me. He didn't seem to be talking to anyone in particular, but it was Sorata who answered.

"Cause he's the one who looks the most trustworthy!" he exclaimed happily.

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" Kurogane yelled at him.

"Thanks a lot. That really makes me feel good." I mumbled to myself sarcastically, not really wanted anyone of these annoyingly happy-go-lucky people (and one cute rabbit-like creature) to respond.

‡†††††††††‡

Although I knew I was waking up I didn't want to. Not yet, anyway. The blanket that was over me was really soft and I didn't want to escape its comfort and vaguely familiar scent, which was a mix between vanilla and honeysuckle. I felt like I could just stay there forever. The only thing that was stopping from falling back to sleep was a bit of yelling going on outside. After the yelling stopped though, I was able to fall back into my World of Dreams.

‡†††††††††‡

The four of us were walking through the city. It looked like we were the middle of down town to me, but I couldn't be sure since we were in a different world.

"It sure is a bustling place!" Fai said as we were walking through the crowds.

"People all over the place!" Mokona said from on top of Syaoran's head.

"Small buildings are bunched up next to huge ones!," Fai said describing the typical 'big-city' setting, "Syaoran-kun, have you ever seen this kind of thing?" he asked him.

"No. Never." the boy answered.

"Tsubame-chan, what about you and Mizuki-chan?"  
"We pretty much grew up in a city like this our whole lives, but there are places with no buildings in our world." I answered.

_I know I shouldn't be speaking for Mizuki since neither of us are really sure whether or not she grew up in an urban or rural environment. And now that I know that there are other worlds, how can we be sure she's even from the world we met in? No, she must have been born in our world. Otherwise we would have never met since there's no one we know that could've done something like that._ I thought confident that she and I came from the same world.

"Kuro-tan, what about you?" Fai asked turning to face Kurogane armed with a nickname that was sure get a violent reaction.

"Never! And why do you have to call me by weirder and weirder names?" He bellowed.

"Is it really necessary to keep yelling like that?" I asked him, "Shouldn't you be more polite to people you just met?"

"Why should I?" he yelled with his attention now fully on me.

"Because it's common courtesy, because it's rude otherwise, because you just come off as a jerk if you don't? I don't know, take your pick!" After that he started screaming at me about how he shouldn't have to be polite, and we ended up having an argument of our own, which I'd really rather not go into details about.

‡†††††††††‡

Kurogane and I both had calmed down after a little while. While we were walking through the city we walked by a few people walking by in the opposite direction who started talking about and pointing at Mokona.

"It's _you_ they're laughing at." Kurogane told the bunny-like thing. At that the thing just blushed, put its paw (if you could call it that) to its face, and said: "Mokona has many girlfriends!" Which Kurogane told it was not true. Then we passed a street vendor advertising his apples. Syaoran looked surprised that it was called an apple.

"That is an apple?" he asked the man.

"If it isn't, I have no idea what it is?" he replied with a smile (probably because he saw us as potential costumers). Fai walked over to Syaoran and bent down to his level.

"So it doesn't look like that on your world?" he asked him.

"The shape is the same, but in my world, the color is a pale yellow." the boy answered describing a different kind of apple than what we were looking at.

"Isn't that called a pear?" Kurogane asked.

_The cashew apple is shaped like a pear, but I don't think that's what Kurogane-san means._ I thought to myself.

"No. A pear is redder and has leaves coming from out the top." Syaoran said describing what sounded more like a tomato.

"No, that's a raki seed, isn't it?" Fai asked.

_What the heck is a raki seed? _I wondered as I looked at the street vendor and his expression went from confused by our conversation to being annoyed that we haven't decided to buy any fruit.

"And do you want it or _not_?" he said interrupting us annoyed by us not making a choice.

"Want it!" Mokona answered for everyone excitedly.

"Five please." I told him. The vendor looked pleased that he was finally able to make a sale despite us being a very strange set of costumers.

‡†††††††††‡

We stopped on a bridge to eat our apples.

"These apples are pretty good, huh?" Fai said starting conversation. I nodded (apples are my favorite fruit).

"Yes." Syaoran replied formally.

"But it really is true that the four of us come from completely different cultures." Fai said.

"I thought that would be obvious." I muttered to me self before taking another bite out of my apple.

"Come to think of it," Fai continued, "I never asked, how did you get to the shop of the dimension witch, Syaoran-kun? You said there was no magic in your world, didn't you?"

"There's a high priest in my land. He sent me." Syaoran answered as I watched Mokona literally inhale its apple (and I thought_ I_ loved apples!).

"That's impressive. It's hard enough to send one person across dimensions. But he sent two." Fai said. Although, that didn't seem to make sense to me. In my way of thinking, wouldn't sending more than one person be the same as just one, "Tsubame-chan, who sent you and Mizuki-chan?" he asked me.

"Well, if you want to be specific our parents sent us. But not by using any magical power or anything like that. Yûko-san's shop is in the same world that Mizuki and I live in. So we just walked there." I answered. The way Mizuki and I got there was by far the least interesting, but that probably means that we were in less danger and less in need for help. (So why are we here in the first place?)

"How about you, Kuro-rin?" Fai said asking, and annoying, the tall man in black. The look on said man's face told me that he was thinking the same thing I was about Mizuki and I.

"The princess of my country sent me away - by force." he answered. He seemed a little bitter about it, but when he started talking I could tell he has a lot of respect for his princess.

_His princess sent him away by force? As like a punishment? Hmm… Why does that sound familiar? _I thought. When it finally hit me I had to hold back hysterical laughter. _Is this really the ninja that Mizuki talked with Tomoyo-hime about?_

"You did something bad and she did it to scold you!" Fai said teasing and pointing at the ninja. Thankfully, even though I wasn't able to hold back the laughter well, it looked like I was trying not to laugh at him for the same reason Fai teased him for. Kurogane looked as if he was going to react with yelling (again) or maybe even violence, but instead asked a question of his own.

"What about you? Who sent you?" he asked the wizard.

"Me?" he said point at himself, "No one I sent myself there." Fai answered.

"Then you didn't have to ask the woman for anything! You could have done this yourself!" Kurogane exclaimed. I sighed just wished he would calm down.

"Not even close." Fai said cheerfully and then he sat up, "Were I to must all of my magical abilities, just getting myself from one dimension to the next would take everything I can do. The one who sent Syaoran-kun and the one who sent you Kuro-chin are people with a _lot_ of magic power. But I'll bet it took all they had. I imagine anyone has the power to send someone to another world only _once_. That's the reason that your high priest sent you to the witch's place. It would take going to a lot of worlds to be able to collect all of Sakura-chan's feathers. And I think the only one who can send someone to many worlds is the dimension witch." Fai explained.

_Maybe that's true. But, in my opinion, if there's one person who can do something like that then there's probably at least one other person who can do the same thing somewhere else. I just hope we don't run into that person. If everything truly happens for a reason, then there must be a reason why a wizard, a ninja, a psychic, that psychic's protector, a princess, and her protector were all gathered up for the same journey._ I thought. I just brushed all of that off thinking that I must have been thinking too deeply into this whole 'hitsuzen' thing, and making something of nothing.

Suddenly there was a scream to our right. On top of a building there were a few guys wearing goggles and on the ground there were a bunch of guys with hats. The guy who looked like the leader of the group with hats said: "This time we're going to kick your butts and take over this neighborhood!"

The leader with the goggles group made a thumbs down sign like some Roman Emperor.

"They're cool!" Fai said as time started going much faster than before.

"Another roped-off battle!" I heard someone say.

_So they've risked other people's safety like this before? In that case I'm glad Mizuki isn't up right now and with us._ I thought. It seemed reckless to me, fight with all these people around.

"That bastard has a special kudan, but don't let that go to your head!" one of the guys in hats shouted to the others. It was right then I felt like there was electricity running through me. Like that feeling you get just before static electricity shocks you. The battle started when the guys in goggles jumped down from the building they were on. All these creatures showed up next to each person and bursts of power were firing everywhere.

"So _that's_ a kudan?" Kurogane said as the crowd's commotion muffled his voice.

"I think I've figured out why no one was surprised at Mokona." Fai said his voice also a bit muffled along with my own.

"I think that would be obvious." I told him. Then this kudan that kinda looked like an alien (if they existed too) appeared in front of the leader of the goggles group. After that a huge manta ray of water, who I guessed was the kudan belonging to the goggled leader. It's attack sent a wave of water towards the group in the hats and washed them away. I noticed a boy in a school uniform slip and fall because of it and a billboard that had broken free was falling towards them. Before I could react I heard Syaoran yelling.

"Watch out!" he screamed as he ran to shield them. Just before it hit them the billboard landed on them it burst into flames and disintegrated.

"You seem to have a special kudan, don't you?" The guy in the goggles asked as the fire formed into a fox-like creature.

‡†††††††††‡

I decided to give up on trying to fall back to sleep, so I pushed the covers, that were completely covering me (as usual), from over my head and discovered that I didn't recognize my surroundings. I looked at the blanket and it turned out to be a coat with a white fur lining and on the inside. It also has blue designs on the sleeves. It was the kind of thing you'd expect to see in to far north (and I mean _far_ north). I folded the coat, with much difficulty (I know I probably should have hung it but there wasn't anywhere that I could hang it, not even a coat rack) as it was about three times my size, and looked around to see if I could find Tsubame anywhere. When I opened the door I saw I beautiful woman with long black hair that went a ways past her shoulders. She had this feeling of having spiritual powers, which is what I knew some people called psychic powers.. She was kneeling over a girl, who looked a couple years younger than me. She looked up at the sound of me coming in.

"Oh, you're awake. My name is Arashi. Tsubame-san will be back in a little while with the others." she said with a small smile.

"Um. Thank you. My name is Mizuki. Where is Tsubame? Who are the others? And where am I?" I asked confused and impolitely bombarding her with questions, which I immediately regretted even though it didn't show on my face. She seemed okay with it though and answered each one. Then, she further explained how it was that I was in a different world, and she explained everything she could. She told me that Tsubame was in town and I would meet 'the others' in question when they came back. As to my third question she told that I was in Hanshin Republic, which was in a different world from Japan, and explained the city. After that, she told me that, most likely, when I arrived in this world I became attached to a kudan. After she said that it made me think of what happened after Tomoyo had left my dream.

"Um, I don't want to a bother, but you wouldn't happen to have anything to eat would you?" I asked praying that my stomach wouldn't grumble a complaint to loud for anyone to ignore.

"Of course, Mizuki-san. It's not a bother at all." She told me as she got up, "I just need to go pick up some things."

"I could go do it. I mean I hate feeling useless, and at home I did it all the time. You could draw a simple map or write down 'easy-to-follow' directions. " I suggested. At this her expression didn't change, but I knew that she thought that my eagerness to be of use was cute.

"Alright, just let me write down the directions." she said leaving the room.

"Thank you, Arashi-san." I said gratefully. After she wrote down the direction to the store and a list of things she wanted me to get, she got me a change of clothes so that mine could dry. 'It's a wonder you didn't catch a cold sleeping in those drenched clothes' she said, or at least something like that. It was a bit muffled since she was on the other side of the door while I was changing. She'd gotten me a red button-up long sleeved shirt, a black sleeveless T-shirt, jeans, and boots that had a small wedge heel. After I was done getting dressed I made sure that no one was able to see the marking on my arm. When I was sure that it would go unseen I came out of the room. Arashi gave me the directions, list, and some money so that would be able to buy the food. As I walked down the street, following the directions that were given to me, I felt that Tsubame was thoroughly annoyed. I couldn't tell why though (I guess I'll find out later on). After that, I heard someone say something about there being some sort of battle going on somewhere in the city while I was in the store paying for the food.

_I hope it isn't anything where people will get hurt. What am I talking about? It's a battle. Of course people are going to get hurt; I just hope it's no one innocent. What if Tsubame gets involved? She wouldn't be that stupid would she? I mean since I'm not there she has no reason to act irrational like she always does with anything concerning me. _I thought as I was walking back to the apartment house that Arashi was at.

_If she's like that then she must be a really loyal friend. _I heard someone say. I looked around and didn't see anyone. Suddenly, I felt rubbing at my legs. I looked down and saw a black cat with orange and white markings. It looked like a calico that was mainly black instead of white. The cat didn't seem to be too interested in the conversation, but that's usual for cats so it's not like I was too surprised.

_She is. _I told her._ Whenever there's someone who does anything, and I mean __anything__, that she finds even the slightest bit threatening to me she goes off on them. I have to admit it's pretty scary sometimes._ After that the cat lost interest in the conversation, as cats _always_ do, and walked away. Although, I could tell it wanted to follow me home.

_Good bye, Mizuki-sama. Make some happy memories on your journey._ I her say as she walked away. I looked where she was walking and saw a fuzzy, gray cat that looked a little bulkier (I figured that the gray cat was the odd-colored calico's sister).When I had gotten back to the inn, Arashi thanked me and started preparing lunch for us both.

_And to think I was hoping my abilities wouldn't act up while here, or at least so soon after I'd woken up. I guess I should be glad it was just 'Animal Telepathy" and not anything else like actual 'Telepathy' or 'Pin-Pointing' or even the visions._ I thought. It was later on in our journey that I thought about this again and realized how ironic it truly was for a psychic like me to even begin to think anything that would even begin to relate to regretting my powers.

‡†††††††††‡

"A kudan that can wield fire," said the guy in the goggles, "mine works water and yours, fire. This will be interesting!" he said just before his manta ray, water kudan shot a blast of water towards Syaoran. Syaoran's fox-like, fire kudan was able to create a shield enough for both him and the boy who had slipped because of the water. I noticed that, as the water blast headed towards the brown-haired boy, that I felt what was similar to a shock of lighting within my body. It immediately reminded me of the dream I had last night.

I noticed that, as the water blast headed towards the brown-haired boy, that I felt what was similar to a shock of lighting within my body. It immediately reminded me of the dream I had last night.

After the water evaporated, the goggles-guy introduced himself.

"I'm Shôgo Asagi. You?" he said.

"Syaoran." said boy answered.

"I like your style." Shôgo Asagi said.

_If you like his style, then why did you attack him?_ I thought to myself just before another guy in goggles told Shôgo about the cops coming.

"And it was just getting good." he sighed, "Come on, ya bastards! Let's get outta here!" he said to his group and they made noises of agreement. He turned to Syaoran as he was running off and said: "Next time we mean, we'll have some real fun!" Then the policemen came chasing after them.

After that, the fire fox-like creature went into Syaoran's chest.

"It … went … inside me." he said.

"That was amazing! Syaoran-kun, did that come from you?" Fai said all smiles when he, Kurogane, and I were finally able to get to him. I mean … I don't think any of us were going to get involved with what looked like a fight (or at least I definitely wasn't … I wasn't too sure about the two men in the group).

"That's a "kudan", huh?" Kurogane and I both said. He seemed annoyed that we both said the same thing while I didn't really mind (and I didn't feel like telling him how annoying _he_ was … again).

"I'm not sure, but I suddenly got very hot …," then as if he suddenly remembered, he turned to the two boys, "You're okay, right?" he said to the one in the school uniform. He nodded telling Syaoran that he was fine.

"I'm glad for that! And you, you're okay, too?" he said to the other boy who seemed to be dressed oddly (if that's a word) for this world and also looked like the one in the uniform. If I hadn't seen the smaller one suddenly go into the later I would've wondered if they were related. Don't get me wrong the boy (who had … obviously … turned out to be a kudan) vanishing _did_ shock me. To the point where I couldn't speak and just had this shocked look on my face. If Mizuki were there she would ask me if the shock had broken my brain (joking of course, she would never insult someone intentionally … unless they made her extremely pissed).

"He vanished!" Syaoran exclaimed looking worriedly around trying to find the boy.

"Oh!" Fai said putting his fist to his hand (it looked like he was putting 'rock' in 'paper, rock, scissors') as if a thought had just come to him, "That kid was a kudan!"

"It looks like they could be anything!" Kurogane grumbled loudly to himself. I was just coming out of my shock but still didn't say anything. What else could there have been to say? Although I did remember a missing 'something', but Fai beat me to saying anything about it.

"Now, where can my 'almost kudan' have gotten off to?" he said putting his hands over his eyes to motion ( … or actually I couldn't tell) search for Mokona. Just realizing we had a missing member of our group Syaoran gasped and searched erratically (a word I learned from Mizuki) for the round, white creature.

"It probably got stepped on somewhere around here. Like some discarded pork bun." Kurogane said scratching the back of his neck like Mokona was too much of a bother to even think about.

"Look. The truth is quite different" Fai said pointing. I looked the direction he was pointing and saw Mokona being held, cuddled, and fawned over by a group of girls. They were saying things like 'it's so cute!', 'look how soft!', and 'the sweetest thing!' which in and of itself was pretty annoying alongside all their 'kyaa!'s or the thing. Then again that was mostly because all of it was getting to Mokona's head.

"Mokona is popular with the ladies!" it said. After we were able to get Mokona from the group of women and it waved its goodbyes, we asked it where it was.

"On top of Kurogane." it said from on top of Syaoran's head, "But then Mokona fell off! " then the white creature looked down at Syaoran (as it was on top of his head), "But just earlier Mokona went just like this!" Mokona said showing us the face that it showed us earlier meaning that there was one of Sakura's feathers nearby.

"You mean that Sakura's feather if somewhere nearby?" Syaoran asked with what looked like a mix between shock, worry, and … well that was about it.

"It was … but Mokona doesn't feel it anymore." the small thing told him.

"Did you figure out who had it?"

Mokona shook it's head (or rather … it's body as I couldn't tell the difference between its head and it's torso) and said: "Don't know."

"Oh … I see." Syaoran said with disappointment immediately appearing on his face, and Mokona suddenly looked like it was depressed (as opposed to it's usual 'Fai-like' happy-go-lucky attitude) which looked really cute despite the reasons for it.

"Even if we limit it to the people who were here, it'll still be a long search. There were lots of people." Fai said while looking up at the sky appearing thoughtful.

"Fai-san's right. It'll be very hard." I said, "Also, there's no guaranty we'd even be able to find all the people that _were_ here." I emphasized the 'were' since there were obviously more people in the city than that were in than in the small area we were just in (in that same city no less).

"Still, we now know that someone close by has it. That's pretty good progress." the boy said.

_That's true too. Or at the very least that's something along the lines of what Mizuki would say. It seems like both Mizuki and Syaoran-kun are pretty optimistic people … even though Mizuki has different reasons._ I thought (look at me … I'm already making comparisons between these people and Mizuki). Syaoran told Mokona that if it sensed anything else to tell us.

"Yes! Mokona will go all-out!" it said excitedly from Syaoran's hands. As Fai was teasing Kurogane (again) the young boy Syaoran had saved earlier went up to him and bowed respectfully and in thanks (wow … I'm starting to sound like Mizuki).

"I just wanted to thank you!" he said before standing up straight again, "My name is Masayoshi Saitô. Please let me do something for you in thanks!" he told Syaoran.

"No, we really didn't do anything …" Syaoran tried modestly to refuse the offer.

"But … but …" Masayoshi started before being interrupted by Mokona.

"Mokona wants _lunch_! Something really good!" our own personal little mutant rabbit said excitedly leaving Syaoran dumbfounded and Masayoshi happy to treat us.

‡††††††††‡

Later at the restaurant that Masayoshi lead us to (I think it was a town in the city called Tsuruhashi).

"What is …" Syaoran started to ask. While we were all look at the food frying in front of us. I was sitting in front of Syaoran and beside Fai. Kurogane was on the other side of Fai and Masayoshi was next to Syaoran.

"Y'see … okonomiyaki is _my_ favorite dish, so … I ordered Modanyaki, but maybe Topeiyaki would have been better." Masayoshi said nervously.

"'Okonomiyaki'? Is that what this is called?" Fai asked.

"Okonomiyaki is a staple of the diet in Hanshin Republic." Masayoshi said with confusion on his face, "If you don't know, then that must mean …" sudden realization hit him as he figured out the reason for all this, " … you come from outside the country?" he said. He mentioned that Fai also had blond hair.

_There isn't anyone with blond hair in this country? Usually they're everywhere. _I thought to myself.

"Outside? You could say that." Fai said with that smile of his growing bigger and Masayoshi looked confused, "Do those people always run roughshod around this district? The guys with the caps and the ones with the goggles?" he asked, although, I couldn't tell whether or not it was because he was concerned for the people or just looking for information.

"That was … a fight for dominance. They form teams and fight to see whose kudan is the stronger." Masayoshi answered.

"And the strongest ones get the territory?" I asked, thinking that this sounds an awful lot like gangs or warring countries. Not that I would've known what those things were like.

"But think of the lives put in danger when they fight in such a large public place." Syaoran said.

"That's true, huh? Masayoshi-kun was in big trouble." Fai agreed.

"There … there are bad teams, but there are good teams too! They patrol their territory making sure no bad kids cause trouble. And if bad people are around, they take care of the problem!" Masayoshi explained.

"Like a local militia?" Syaoran asked.

"What about those two teams before?" Fai asked before I even had the chance to open my mouth.

"The ones in caps were the bad ones! But the ones in goggles aren't like them at all! When they battle other teams, some of the surrounding buildings get damaged, so the adults are afraid of them … but they wouldn't do anything else that's bad! They're really cool!" out of excitement Masayoshi suddenly stood up, "Especially their leader, Shôgo-san! They say his kudan is special level! It's so big and strong … everyone wishes they had a kudan just like it!" It was just then that Masayoshi seemed to realize how excites he got. Ashamed of himself, he sat back down and apologized. I honestly don't know why he even saw the need to apologize in the first place.

"And you wish you had a friend just like him, huh?" Fai asked.

"I-I sure do!" Masayoshi replied timidly with a bit of excitement in his voice, during this time I noticed that Kurogane was looking intently at the food in front of him, "But I'd also like a friend like Syaoran-kun."

The boy mentioned looked shocked to hear this, but I was just confused. Masayoshi noticed and continued to explain.

"Anybody with a special level kudan is just amazing!" he said.

"Special level? What is that?" I asked him as Fai said that leader of that goggle gang mentioned that too.

"It's an especially high level for kudan. The fourth-level kudan is the lowest. And moving up, there's the third level, second level, first level, and at the very top is special level. Years ago, all the countries got together and banned the use of levels on kudan, but normal people got still use the system." Masayoshi explained further.

"Then that leader's kudan must be very strong." Fai guessed still not looking as serious as it seemed like he should have been.

"Yeah!" Masayoshi exclaimed, "So is Syaoran-kun's! To get a strong kudan, especially a special-level kudan, you need to be a strong person yourself, or they won't stay! It's a person's heart that controls a kudan. So if a person can command a strong kudan, that's proof that the person is strong! Who wouldn't want a friend like that?" Masayoshi said.

_I have to admit, the kid has a point… Did I just call someone so close to my age a 'kid'? Wow, way to go Tsubame. _I thought as Masayoshi told us that his own kudan was fourth-level and at the very bottom. It was Fai's annoyingly too-happy voice that interrupted my thoughts and self-accusations.

"But _when_ did Syaoran-kun's kudan join up with him?" he asked

"Now that you mention it …" Syaoran started as Kurogane started to put the spatula under the frying food to flip it, "… I had an odd dream last night." And before anyone could reply there was a sudden 'STOP RIGHT THERE!' that made everyone freeze. We all looked in the direction of the voice and saw a tall, dark-haired, handsome looking guy and another shorter, light-haired guy who both looked close to my age, if not a little older.

"Your Majesty! And the high priest!" Syaoran suddenly yelled with shock, "Y-your Majesty, what brings you here?" he asked looking at the taller one.

"You got the wrong guy. 'Your Majesty' is nowhere in my name." he said looking as confused as I was.

"What?" Syaoran sounded shocked and confused all at the same time. So that guy and I weren't the only ones, huh?

"And mister…" 'His majesty', as Syaoran called him, addressed Kurogane, "…_we_ do the flipping here. If you'd just leave it and wait, we'll be right there." He told him as the two boys started walking away.

"Y-yes, sir!" the ninja stammered. I was amazed, after all, the way Mizuki described him from her conversations with Tomoyo-hime he didn't seem like the type of guy that would stammer. Then again whenever Tomoyo-hime talked to Mizuki was he was being a troublemaker. The two guys were making their way to another table when Fai started a whole new conversation.

"Majesty … was he a king in your world?" he asked Syaoran.

"Yes…" the boy answered with an expression on his face that I couldn't read.

"And the guy with him was the high priest… it's just like the time witch said. 'People you've met on your world they've developed under completely different conditions on other worlds'."

"You're saying they're the same as the king and high priest of the kid's world." Kurogane asked.

"They're the same … and not the same." Fai answered, "The two from Syaoran-kun's world lived a completely different life than these two." I noticed that our conversation was seriously confusing Masayoshi, "But when it comes down to it … at the very basic level, they're the same. I guess."

"Basic level?" Kurogane asked trying to understand.

"The very root of their lives. Their nature … Their hearts …" Fai explained while making the shape of a heart with his hands.

"'Soul'! That's what you're saying, right?" Kurogane said.

_Does that mean that there's a Mizuki and Tsubame running around Hanshin?_ I thought to myself. I looked over to Syaoran only to find that he seemed lost in thought. Our food had even been finished and he didn't seem to notice.

"Syaoran-kun?" I said trying to get his attention. My voice pulled him from his thoughts and his attention was now on us.

"If you don't eat it, we will." Fai said holding up the food with chopsticks, which I remembered him complaining that they were hard to use. Syaoran said 'okay!' while Kurogane and Mokona were fighting over the same piece of food and poor Masayoshi was trying to calm the fuming ninja. I smiled lightly at the scene and decided that this journey may not be such a bad thing for Mizuki after all.

‡††††††††‡

After Arashi and I had eaten lunch I wondered how it was that the odd-colored calico knew my name or even that I was on a journey in the first place. It also called 'Mizuki-sama'. I mean, I'd gotten used to it all the animals I'd ever spoken called me that (no matter how annoying I thought it was). It was just that, when Tomoyo told me about them, I thought that if I ended up going to a different world the animals there wouldn't do that (guess I was wrong). During lunch though, Arashi told me that Tsubame and the others (whose names or even appearance I still didn't know … except for Sakura-san of course who we both were taking turns watching over at the moment … it was Arashi's turn right now while I was in the room I woke up in) had each given up something as a price to be able to travel between worlds. I don't think she had meant to mention this, though. It was just part of the answer to my questions. But it made me wonder what Tsubame gave up (as well as the others); although the only thing that bothered me was that I couldn't remember the price that I had paid to Yûko.

_Whenever I get the chance, I'll have to remember to ask Yûko-san about it, or Tsubame might know the price I paid. I wonder if maybe the bracelet she gave could have been it. Could having it for whatever reason be a price?_ That thought brought the bracelet she put around my wrist back to my attention. When Yûko first gave to me I'd had only a few moments before everything went black, so I didn't get to get a good look at it. I brought up the wrist that the bracelet was linked around, and only part of my mind registered that it was my right arm (the same arm that had the marking that looked like wolf). It was actually a very beautiful charm bracelet. The chain itself was silver like platinum (and something told me that it might have actually been platinum) which had charms from all around it. Closest to the clasp was a charm that had two gems coming from it, one a ruby red and the other a sapphire blue, to the right of that was a tiger's head which I had seen on the money in this world (which I was told was called 'koko'), after the tiger was what looked like a small pagoda which the top was a pale blood red and the pillars and bottom were a pale dark brown, then there was a fish that pale yellow a curled into a circle, then the next charm was a black bird (although if looked like a very dark gray, but I knew I was right to assume it was black) that was shaped a bit like a sparrow that was in flight, after that was a pale pink sakura flower (I'd have to remember to tell Sakura about her namesake), then there was a Ferris wheel like the ones in amusement parks (although the bright colors were pale instead), after that there was a totem pole (which had the animals an eagle, a small bird, a panther, a dragon, a fox, and a wolf bottom to top respectively), then there was a paper lantern that, like the pagoda, was mainly red, after the paper lantern was a small flame that was the pale orange and red instead of being the bright versions of those colors, then there was an eye but the eye was sideways instead the way an eye normally looks which meant that that particular charm had something to do with the mind's eye, the symbol for psychic power (what was weird about that one though was that the charms eye color was a paler version of my own cobalt blue, with streaks of gray, eye color), then there was a white (which for this charm bracelet seemed more like white gold) plump, cartoon-like wing, then there was an open book next to the wing, after that there was a small circle that had so much detail in it that it was amazing and beautiful at the same time, it was the type of thing that I could stare at all day (the only details I could see for sure was a wolf, that looked precisely like the marking on my arm, a crescent moon, and a symbol like rune that I never remembered seeing before although I knew it meant snow, ice, or winter), when I was finally able to tear my eyes away from the circle I saw that the next charm was a queen chess piece from the black side (it never occurred to me before now that black could be pale too), then there was a blue rune character that I couldn't remember ever seeing but it looked familiar, next was another charm that had more than one thing hanging from it, they were pale blood red, an off-white color, an ash grey that was even more pale than usual (if that was even possible), a platinum silver that looked worn down and didn't glow quite like the chain it hung from, a pale gold, and black that was also paled, then there was a crescent moon, finally, on the left side of the red and blue gems, there was a black set of wings. Although instead of just one pair there was seven, and there was something about that made fear the symbol itself. After a couple of minutes of studying it and trying to think of how all these were related, I noticed that the tiger looked like it was glowing slightly. As well as the fact that the two gems and the tiger head were the only charms that didn't look paled like the others did.

‡††††††††‡

"That was great!" Mokona exclaimed from the top of Syaoran's head.

"Yeah," I agreed, "it was really good and filling too."

"It really was." Fai said agreeing with that phony smile still on his face. He'd done so much since I first saw him that there was no doubt in my mind that it was false now.

"Good job guiding us here. It really _did_ taste good!" Syaoran told Masayoshi, "If you know any other good places, tell us." Syaoran continued. As we started walking I had this feeling that someone was watching us.

"Now, what's the plan from here?" Fai asked Syaoran.

"I thought we would search in this section of town." The boy answered.

"Hm. But we don't know our way around, so we won't be able to go far. We have to be able to find our way back to Sora-chan's apartment." Fai said as if he was thinking over Syaoran's idea. It annoyed me that he took up Sorata's offer to call him 'Sora-chan' and I had a feeling that there was going more that he would do to annoy me and try and get a reaction similar to Kurogane's.

_If he pushes the right buttons, he __will__ get that reaction from me._ I thought.

"Uh … excuse me." I heard Masayoshi's timid voice, "Are you guys going somewhere?" he asked.

"Yes." Syaoran answered.

"Where would that be?"

"We don't really know. We're searching for something."

"If it's okay with you, I'll help you look. I can show you around."

"We don't want put you out …" Syaoran started.

"Not at all!" Masayoshi exclaimed eagerly, "But I should phone home first. If you'd wait here just a second …" he said as he scurried off to find a phone.

"He really _does _want to be friends, huh?" Fai asked Syaoran, "I nearly forgot. Our conversation was cut off. You were talking about your dream…"

"Yes, it was about that creature that appeared, that beast of fire." Syaoran replied.

"If you're talking about dreams of weird animals … I had one too." Kurogane said from not too far off from us. It would look to other people like he was 'window shopping'.

"Now that you mention it, I had a dream with an animal in it too." I said bringing my hand to my chin thoughtfully.

"Me, as well. It was very persistent." Fai was able to finish his sentence just before our conversation was interrupted, again.

"I wanna know who this 'Syaoran' is!" the interrupter demanded.

_Seriously, do these people not know how to mind their own business!_ I thought.

_**Yeah, like **__**you**__** should talk.**_ I knew that was a thought, but I also knew it wasn't mine. It sounded a bit like Mizuki's voice.

_Well, she's awake._ I thought. I wondered how long she'd been awake now. Was it since we left those apartments? While we were having lunch? Or could it have been during that time when there was that territory battle in the middle of town? Also, Mizuki was always so resistant to using her psychic powers, so why did she do it now? There'd been no point in asking her then; she was long gone back to listening to her own thoughts. The only reason I didn't freak out was because she told me about and done it before. I'd already been used to it but I still doubted that she'd want to tell our new traveling 'companions' about any psychic ability she had.

"A little kid? Are you serious?" I loud and annoying voice snapped back into reality. The owner of the voice was a short (sorry … I mean vertically challenged), fat guy with thick lips, sunglasses, and (like all the followers behind him) a Mohawk. Pretty poor taste in style, if you had asked me, but I was a 'good' little girl and kept my mouth shut.

"No, he's the guy! I'm sure of it!" One of his followers said. 'He's the guy'?

_What in the world are they talking about? Hee hee … get it. What in the __world.__ Hee hee… Okay that was a lame joke. I need to come up with … Damn it! I've stopped listening again! Maybe Mizuki's right, I should start paying attention to what people say. Speaking of …_

"I'm not joining." Said a blunt Syaoran.

_I don't know what's going on, but you tell him Syaoran-kun!_

"Then you'll join _my_ team!" The little guy said excitedly.

"I'm not joining you either. Not a chance." He replied.

"He doesn't mince words, does he?" Fai said with an amused smile.

"No, he's very blunt." I said to no one in particular as Syaoran continued.

"I have my own affairs. So …" but he was interrupted.

"Then you're planning to start a team of your _own_!" the Mohawk leader exclaimed.

"No, you're not getting-" the boy tried to explain, but unfortunately he was again interrupted by the Mohawk leader. This guy had serious problems in either listening or in comprehension. In what seemed like a frenzy the Mohawk leader suddenly called his kudan, which looked like a giant crab. Although, it had spikes (I know that some crabs have spikes), no legs, and a tail.

"Well, I'm gonna take you out right now!" He yelled as he did. I heard Mokona and Fai comment on it but I hadn't been listening.

"I'm not doing any such thing!" Syaoran again tried to explain in vain as the giant thing attacked him swinging its tail like a sword. Luckily though, Syaoran had enough skill to dodge it as it sliced through the pillar he was in front of.

"Not a good listener, is he?" Fai said. Even though he also said this with a smile, like he did everything else, this time it seemed more sinister and almost made a spine shiver. Almost. Fai was just about to step forward when Kurogane's hand blocked his path.

"I've been pretty bored here." He said as he walked toward the Mohawk leader, but only enough so that he was in front of Syaoran, putting the 'spotlight' on him, "I'll take you on!" he finally announced.


	3. The Country of the Many Gods

I'm so sorry about how long it took to finally post this chapter. I really don't have any excuses. I'm also sorry that this one is shorter than the other two but it seemed like a good place to stop it and I knew you guys were anxious for it.

To MCRDanime, I believe I replied to your review but in case I was wrong, and to everyone else who's wondering: For now Mizuki won't be getting paired up with anyone, it's only for now though it all depends on Mizuki and the person you want her to be paired with (Fai for you MCRDanime. I like him too but that doesn't mean that Mizuki will.) Also, out of curiosity, if I pair Tsubame up with somebody who do you readers think it should be from what you've read about her. I'm surprised that no one asked about her though since most of the story up till now has been in her point of view.

I'd like to thank Blood Butterfly for helping me edit this story as well as for being my official unofficial nagger (basically she messages me every so often to remind me to write this story). She has an awesome story herself called 'Hitsuzen yeah, right' that I recommend you to read if your not already. I like so much that, ironically, that when she updated it I stopped writing _my_ story just to read it.

Please review my readers

**Disclaimer: I don't own TRC, it's characters or places. I only own Mizuki Kurosawa, Tsubame Maki, and Tsubame's kudan. **

* * *

Chapter 3

The Country of the Many Gods

_How do you know but ev'ry bird that cuts the airy way,_

_Is an immense world of delight, clos'd by your senses five._

_**-William Blake, **__**The marriage of Heaven and Hell**_

I wasn't really all that surprised that Kurogane had challenged that Mohawk gang leader. A guy like him lives for fighting.

"Kurogane's been looking forward to this!" I heard Mokona say.

"The Hanshin Republic is just his style, huh?" Fai agreed.

_You took the words right out of my mouth,_I thought.

"Shut up, over there!" Kurogane screamed in our direction.

"But Kurogane-san! You gave your sword to that woman …" Syaoran started to protest, but was quickly interrupted by the ninja.

"That sword was magic. It was special. And in _my_Japan, I needed it to kill the monsters that lived there;" he said, "but kudans aren't monsters."

"So… what level is _your_kudan?" the Mohawk leader asked him.

"I don't know and I don't care. What's all this _talk_for? Come and get me!" the ninja stated confidently.

"Syaoran-kun!" yelled a familiar voice from the other side of the room. Syaoran and I both looked over and, sure enough, Masayoshi was running towards us.

"Masayoshi-kun, do you know this guy?" Fai asked him when he got to us.

"It's a team that wants to control this district! They're battling Shôgo's team over it!" the boy exclaimed.

"Is the leader any good?" I asked him.

"His kudan is _first level_! He may not look like much, but his kudan is one of the fastest around! And…" before the poor boy could finish his explanation he was interrupted by the Mohawk gang leader trying to taunt Kurogane.

"Take a look at the attack of a first-level kudan! _Eat this!_" he yelled while pointing at the ninja, "Kani-nabe Senkai!*" As this command (or that's what it seemed to be) the crab-like kudan spun around so that its tail would slice Kurogane in two … had he not flipped and dodged it. Instead the tail hit one of the pillars inside the building had cut right through. It was a shock to each of us.

"That kudan can sharpen parts of its body to an edge as sharp as a knife!" Masayoshi said to explain what had happened. We just continued to watch on as Kurogane dodged the attacks of the crab-like kudan as its owner kept egging it on.

"Watch out!" Syaoran told Kurogane as he tried to run and help him. But Fai put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"I think if you try to get involved, he'll get really mad. Kuro-tan's like that," Fai said.

"Yeah, he's the type of person that doesn't like to except any help," I agreed. Our attention was drawn back to the battle in front of us.

"Kani Dôraku*!" the Mohawk leader yelled as the spikes on top of his kudan's head suddenly shot out towards Kurogane who had attempted to block with his own arms. The force of the attack made me realize just how much this battle was destroying our surroundings.

"Where's _your_kudan? You're probably so weak, you're ashamed to bring it out!" the Mohawk leader taunted.

_I highly doubt that._I thought as I saw Kurogane shove some rubble, which was on top of him, from himself. He spoke and it was as if his words were meant to prove my thoughts.

"Oh, shut _up_!" he said in an annoyed tone, "You guys _talk_too much!" His smirk and the dangerous gleam in his eyes were almost frightening.

"My kudan has an even tougher shell than most first-level kudan!" the Mohawk leader boasted.

"But it has a weakness," the ninja countered and groaned as he continued, "if I had a sword, it'd be in pieces already." Almost immediately, as if in response to his comment, a huge dragon appeared behind him. It looked like flowing water taking its own shape, which was a dragon I would've expected to see in fairy tales. I could only guess that it was Kurogane's kudan. (Part of the guess work was that I remember that the hilt of the sword he gave to Yûko-san had the head of a dragon.)

"What?" Kurogane said in surprise, "You were the one that appeared in my dream!" The dragon started transforming in to a sword in Kurogane's hands: "You're asking me to wield you? I get it. You like a good punch-up, too!" The appearance of Kurogane's kudan must have made the Mohawk leader pretty nervous. He started stuttering while still trying to look tough.

"S-so that's your kudan? It's probably all show! Well, I've got an ultimate attack! Kane Kui-hôdai*!" he exclaimed, flustered that he's been bested. The spines all over his kudan's back shot out like spears, like a few of them did minutes before.

_Once Kurogane-san's kudan showed up, this fight was over. That much is obvious. Mental note: Never get into a__real__fight with this guy,_I thought. Although I would never admit it out loud, I knew from the moment I saw him that he was not only stronger than me, but he was also more skilled in fighting (or rather, fighting to protect someone) than I could ever hope to be.

"It doesn't matter how hard a shell is, when you pull out a knife lobsters and crabs all have weak points in the joints," he said as he expertly ran under the crab-like kudan and attacked: "Hama Ryû-ô-jin*!"

The Mohawk leader screamed in pain, hunching over and clutching his body. It surprised me. Not Kurogane winning, I'd expected that the second he challenged the Mohawk leader. I was surprised that damaging a kudan seemed to damage the owner too. Syaoran and Masayoshi were also surprised, but I don't think that it was the same reason I had. The only ones of us who didn't _seem_surprised at all were Fai and Mokona.

The Mohawk leader's underlings crowded around him, asking if he was okay after he fell to the ground. The Mohawk leader himself ignored them and pointed a weak, shaking finger towards Kurogane.

"Th-the kid lied! He _did_form a team! You're a part of Syaoran's team, aren't you?" he asked.

_Jeez! He's__still__hung up on that? Man, something tells me this guy is only running on half a deck,_I thought.

"I'm not on _anybody's_team! Listen… in my life, I've only served under one person! And that's Tomoyo-hime!" He sounded like he was annoyed that the Mohawk leader was still talking about teams and such, too.

_It's nice to hear he's still loyal to Tomoyo-hime, despite the fact that she sent him on a journey he obviously didn't want to go on. I'll have to make sure to ask Mizuki to tell her that the next time they meet in their dreams,_I thought.

‡†††††††††‡

Arashi and I were watching over the sleeping Sakura when I noticed people come inside the apartments. The door opened and in the doorway I saw Tsubame with three people I didn't recognize. Oddly though, I felt almost… overjoyed upon seeing the blond one, but I didn't know how or even why and my head started hurting the more I thought about it. Once I stopped thinking about it the headache disappeared. As I stood to greet them, I made a mental note to try talking about it with Tsubame later. When we were alone, maybe after everyone else fell asleep.

Everyone had noticed me, but Tsubame was the first (and fastest) to come over to me before I could even speak.

"Mizuki, you're awake! That's such a relief, I was afraid that you'd sleep the whole time we were here," she told me. Though the relief part was pretty obvious on her face; I guessed that she'd been worried the whole time that they were out.

"I'm really sorry," I told her. "I didn't mean to make you worried like that. I'm not even sure why I slept that long in the first place." I felt bad about that lie since Tomoyo already told me why that happened, "But aside from that, who are those guys?" I asked her pointing at the three strangers in the room.

"You don't need to apologize," she said ignoring my question, "you probably only slept that long because you needed the rest."

"Well there is that, but earlier I woke up 'cause of a lot of noise outside," I took note of Tsubame throwing the tallest of the group, one with black hair and crimson eyes, a nasty glare, "then I fell back to sleep cause of something very soft on me," the look in her eyes went from spiteful to suspicious as it went from the black-haired man to the blond one, "when I woke up later I found that it was a heavy fur coat over me." The blond spoke before Tsubame had a chance to reply.

"You see, while you slept you started shivering, Tsubame got really worried so I offered to let you use my coat as a blanket to keep you warm," he said as I began to understand Tsubame's suspicious look. That smile of his was nothing more than asking people to suspect him of _something,_and something told me that he knew that's what it was doing and that he was doing it on purpose.

"Oh, really?" I nodded; "In that case thank you …" I had only just realized that I didn't know his name. What was it had I seen in his eyes that had been so unreadable before? Relief? Disappointment? Grief? Whatever it was, it looked as though he was crestfallen and it stunned me for a moment. But it stunned me more that the look in his eyes was gone as quickly, if not more so, than it had appeared. I noticed also, that it had seemed to be noticed only by myself as the mood in the rest of the room hadn't changed at all.

"You can call me Fai," he said, his eyes unreadable once more and his fake-smile even bigger.

"Then thank you, Fai-san," I said still not quite completely recovered from the earlier shock. Tsubame seemed too put off by the fact that I was speaking to him so incautiously and interjected.

"The boy over there is Syaoran-kun, he said he's an archeologist. And that guy over there with the black hair is Kurogane-san, he's a ninja," she told me. She was also telling me with her eyes that she wanted to know if Tomoyo had told me anything else about him while I was sleeping. (I never understood why she had such an interest in my abilities.) Ignoring Tsubame's questioning eyes and saving _our_conversation for later, I turned to the others and bowed slightly.

"It's nice to meet you, I'm sorry that I was sleeping for so long," I told them before standing back straight again. Syaoran also bowed slightly and said his hellos.

"It's nice to meet you too, Mizuki-san," he said while Kurogane said nothing. I wasn't offended, but from everything Tomoyo told me about him I expected that he would've said 'Hey' or something.

"Were you able to find any clues?" Arashi asked Syaoran.

"Yes," he answered right as Sorata came running down the stairs.

"Oh! You're all here! How'd it go?" he said after noticing us all there. "But … before any of that …" he continued, "Honey! Where's my 'welcome home' kiss?" he asked Arashi. Then he started pointing to his cheek as if she was actually going to give him one. To me Arashi looked rather … annoyed and she gave him one alright. One punch right over the top of his head, that is.

Later, while we were discussing what had happened during everyone's first day in Hanshin (which had been after everyone explained to me what had happened with Sakura) … well … let's just say that it was pretty hard to ignore the big bump on his head.

"I see… you _had_a reaction, but it disappeared," he said, "and just when Syaoran was in trouble, something that looked like a beast of fire suddenly appeared," he said, making sure that he heard everyone's explanation right while Mokona, who was right next to him, was commenting on Arashi's strength, since her punch made such a big bump. As Syaoran confirmed this, Mokona went over towards Fai and Syaoran (who were on the still sleeping Sakura's right side while Tsubame, Kurogane, and I were on her left).

"That beast must have been your kudan, Syaoran-kun," Fai said as the small white creature hopped over to him.

"Well, it seems like a pretty strong one, too!" Sorata agreed. "And Kurogane's kudan also seems strong!" he said.

"How do you know that?" the ninja in question asked.

"I told you before, I'm a scholar of history," he said. (Actually it was Arashi who told me that, but I decided against mentioning it.) "The kudan are the linchpin of the whole thing. It's my belief that kudan are akin to gods in this nation. In the Hanshin Republic, there is a myth that's been handed down through the ages … it says that the number of kami, gods, is 'yaoyorozu'," he said.

"Yaoyorozu?" Fai asked, confused by the foreign word, so Sorata explained that the word was written with the characters for 'eight million'. "So there are eight million gods here?" Fai asked as Mokona, from atop the blond's head, said 'Lots of kami-sama!'

"No," Sorata said, "probably many more. They say there are as many gods as there are things and phenomena in this world. The word 'yaoyorozu' simply means 'a whole lot,'" he explained.

"So the gods of that myth are now called kudan?" Syaoran said while Mokona jumped to him this time.

_That's amazing!_I thought. _Who knew that people could actually live side by side with their gods?_

"That's pretty impressive. You live together with your gods," Fai said.

"So the gods of this land protect each and every person who lives in it!" Syaoran exclaimed.

"You came to that conclusion, too?" Sorata asked Syaoran excitedly. "I've thought that all along! The kudan, or rather the gods, have a lasting love for the people of this country! Every person, without exception, is accompanied by a kudan. So every human in this country is protected! It's true that a lot people in the Hanshin Republic are easy to get riled up. They hate losing; they never get to the point; they'll attack if you're not paying attention; if our team wins they go crazy; they throw themselves in the river… but even so, I think they are really good people." He continued, "And that's why, when it comes to finding Sakura's feather, searching here is probably better than searching in a country full of bad people, or a country that makes war on its neighbors." Syaoran turned to Sakura then. The way he looked at her, the way his hand gently caressed her cheek like a spring-time breeze it was pretty obvious, to me at least, that the boy loved her.

"You said you detected the waves of Sakura's feather, but you don't know where it went?" Arashi asked - always the one to get the conversation back on track - the little creature called Mokona who confirmed what the woman had asked. "So if it were simply someone who had the feather and walked away you probably could have easily tracked down where it went to," she said, grabbing everybody's attention, "but what if the one that had it could appear and disappear, the only thing that could have it is…" she continued before she was interrupted by Syaoran.

"A kudan!" the boy exclaimed. "Is that what you mean?"

"A kudan _can_appear and disappear," Fai said.

"And if a kudan disappeared, the wave might disappear too," Kurogane said. I have to admit, I _did_understand everything everyone was saying. But it pretty much felt like Tsubame and I weren't there. Then again, anything we could have said was already said by someone else.

"Within one of these kudan we may find Sakura's feather!" Syaoran said with a determined expression on his face.

_I don't want to say this aloud, but I know for sure that we'll find Sakura-chan's feather in a kudan. I've been wrong before though, so I don't want make that poor boy's hopes raise too high,_I thought.

"But we have no idea just who had the kudan with the feather," Fai said as he and Mokona commented on the fact that the territorial battle had a lot of kudan in it.

"Way to bring down the mood," Tsubame and I said together.

"Hmm… what do you mean?" the blond said looking at us with that 'please-suspect-me-of-something' smile beaming at us.

"Never mind," Tsubame said as I sighed and the matter was left forgotten.

"But it would have to be a strong kudan," Sorata said.

"What makes you say that?" I asked. Although kudans had been explained to me, it wasn't like I was an expert on the subject.

"The fragments of Sakura-chan's memory are immensely potent-like crystalized shards of her heart. A kudan uses the owner's heart. The stronger the heart, the stronger the kudan becomes," Arashi explained.

"In any case, looking for the strongest kudan seems like a shortcut to finding Sakura-chan's feather," Fai said. Despite the fact that he was stating the obvious, the way he said it made it sound like he was formulating a plan that, now that I think about it, never happened at all.

After that, we had dinner and got ready for bed. Kurogane, Tsubame, Fai, and I were all in one room, the room I woke up in, while Syaoran slept, or at least I'd hoped he slept, in the same room as Sakura. Mokona had decided to sleep with me that night since I'd been out of it almost two whole days and it had wanted to spend the night with me. Also, Fai was letting me use his fur coat as a blanket again.

"Mizuki-chan, while you were sleeping did you have any odd dreams?" Fai asked me as I had lain down to go to sleep. I noticed Tsubame look at him in the corner of my eye.

"What kind of dreams?" I asked. That was the question that Tsubame usually asked if she wanted to know if I'd talked to Tomoyo in my dreams or had any visions. I instantly hoped she hadn't told them about all that. I hadn't wanted them to know about that yet. I had no idea how'd they take it or even if they'd believe me. I needed to tell them at the right time and slowly, so as to not cause any shock.

"It seems that last night everyone had a dream about a weird animal. I was asking if you had one too," he clarified. I was a bit relieved and I couldn't help but notice Tsubame getting slightly more than a little irritated by the blond's question and his more-than-fake smile.

"Well I really couldn't tell you. I don't always remember my dreams and even when I do they're always pretty weird," I told him. It was partially a lie since I always remember my dreams, but they are always weird. But, now that I had thought about it, more than just Tomoyo did visit my dream while I had slept and it _was_a weird animal. That same animal had also dropped the temperature so low I thought my blood would turn to ice.

"Really?" he asked seeming interested, "What kind of dreams are they?" The question seemed out of character from what it looked like he's wanted by even bothering to put that fake smile on his face. It was more like the question just … slipped out. As if he hadn't meant to ask but something made him ask anyway. Or maybe I was looking too far into it and he'd asked just to make me uncomfortable, like I was taking a test and I didn't know anything on the subject.

"I don't really like talking about them, they're pretty embarrassing," I answered, looking away. It seemed to suffice and he didn't say anything after that. After I laid down (and Mokona snuggled up to my face) and as I was falling to sleep I heard Tsubame mumbling things about the confusing blond that I'd rather not go repeating. Then I slipped back into the flurry of multi-colored feathers. The dream I had that night had been more than unpleasant as I felt fire licking at my flesh and burning my skin.

‡†††††††††‡

The next day we went out into the city to try and find Sakura's feather, though our efforts weren't very successful.

"I guess that nobody has their kudan out while simply walking. And if they don't, we'll never see if anyone's kudan is stronger or weaker," Fai said.

_That's true._I thought to myself, trying my best to figure out a way to determine a kudan's strength without the person having to bring them out or even cause a commotion. I couldn't come up with anything!

"And, even if we do find out which kudan has taken the feather … I doubt they'll be overly willing to give it up," said the ninja. None of us had time so say anything more before a boy in what looked like traditional Chinese clothing came through the wall to our left, giving us all a bit of a scare. Nothing more than alerted attention. Although, Syaoran and Tsubame were the only ones to _yell_in shock. I was too used to things like that due to all the spirits…or rather, as other people tend to refer to them, ghosts I see. They'd always come through walls and other things to try and scare me or, at least, to try and get my attention.

"Syaoran-kun!" I heard someone exclaim from behind us. We all looked and saw a meek looking boy around Syaoran and Sakura's age.

"Masayoshi-kun," Syaoran said as if he was greeting him formally. The boy, who had apparently been called Masayoshi, stopped before us, panting like a worn out animal.

"Were you able to find what you were looking for after I left?" he asked Syaoran between wheezes.

"Not yet…" Syaoran answered, disappointed.

"Okay, then how about I be your guide again today?"

"Are you sure it's okay?" Syaoran asked, obviously not wanting to be a bother. I felt the same way though.

"Sure!" the other boy said enthusiastically, "Today's Sunday! It's perfectly fine for today!" I think Tsubame and I were the only ones who realized that this meant he didn't have any school today, but no one said anything so we never felt the need to explain.

"I'm surprised you were able to find us," Fai interjected.

"My kudan can find anybody as long as he's met them once. It's no good if it's too far away, though," Masayoshi explained.

"That's pretty amazing!" Syaoran and I exclaimed in unison.

"But that's about _all_he can do. He's pretty weak!" he said bashfully, then he looked as if he'd just noticed something that he hadn't before and he looked towards me. "Um… I don't remember you from yesterday," he said in a shy tone.

"Oh! I'm sorry. I forgot to introduce myself," I apologized, blushing slightly with embarrassment. "My name is Mizuki. I was feeling ill yesterday so I stayed behind while these guys went in to town." It wasn't totally a lie, I had felt ill for at least part of the day, but it also wasn't totally true either and I still felt guilty about that.

"Oh, I hope you're feeling well, Mizuki-chan."

"I am. Thank you for your concern." Before anyone could say anything more a bird-like looking kudan (I'd only guessed it was a kudan since I'd never seen one before) scooped up Masayoshi, Mokona, and myself. I had a feeling though, that picking up Mokona and I was an accident.

_Just great._I thought as the kudan was flying away. _I hope that the others will be able to find us before another problem manifests itself._

‡††††††‡

I was in too much shock to be able to react to Masayoshi, Mokona, and (more importantly) Mizuki being basically kidnapped right before my eyes. But I was even more shocked when Syaoran started yelling gibberish. He was holding out a paper so I assumed that he wanted us to look at it. I recognized the words as some other language in my world (English… I think, but Mizuki would have been a better person to ask than me since she's always been so studious).

"What's written on there?" I heard Kurogane ask.

"I don't know, I can't read it either," I said.

"I wasn't asking you!" he said harshly. Before I could scold his rudeness Fai spoke some gibberish of his own.

"How come I can't understand what anyone's saying except for this stupid girl?" he said aloud with his finger to his ear like he's trying to clean it out.

"Hey, I'm not stupid!" I yelled which was followed by more gibberish from Fai.

"Shut up!" he yelled back. Before I could yell back something hit me…and from their expressions everyone else had the same realization. The one thing that was different from now and the rest of the time we'd been in this world, which must be the reason this is happening now.

"Mokona!" the four of us said together. I pretended not to notice a surge of electricity that flowed through me as we all started running to find Mizuki, Masayoshi, and Mokona.

As we were all running down a street I hadn't seen the name of (by then my nerves and worry for Mizuki had escalated to their highest point and because of that I'd somehow ended up in the front of our little group), I felt this… part of me that separated from my body, with the same jolt of electricity I'd felt before… this time it stopped me dead in my tracks, and it manifested in front of me. I knew immediately, whether it was due to experience or just instinct I'll never know, that it was my kudan*. It was a panther, or maybe it was a tiger. I could just barely see stripes on its body.

_**I can help you find your friend.**_Its voice rang in my head. It started running before I could ask it if it was like Masayoshi's kudan when it came to this locating ability. (I'd noticed that there were a lot of interruptions going on today.) I started following it right away. As I was running, I looked over my shoulder to the others even though I knew it would just be a wasted effort.

"My kudan told me that it can find Mizuki!" I turned back immediately, not bothering to wait for a response and followed my kudan.

‡††††††††‡

We all followed my kudan out of the subway tunnel.

"It's this way!" I shouted only to hear the same gibberish from Fai and Syaoran that I'd been hearing since Mizuki, Masayoshi, and Mokona got kidnapped by the bird-like kudan. My kudan had dissipated when we stopped and I wondered if it was because I'd been calmer at that point. I still didn't know much about how this 'kudan' thing worked.

"They still can't understand you," Kurogane said bluntly.

"I know that!" I said annoyed as I turned around and started walking towards the castle. As we got closer I saw something very small tied to the tiger/fish statue on the roof of the castle. I squinted to try to see it better.

_No. I know they didn't do what I think they did!_I thought dangerously and Syaoran yelled: "Mizuki-san! Mokona! Masayoshi-kun!" only confirming what I was hoping I wasn't really seeing. The three of them were what had been tied to the decoration on top of the castle and, for lack of better words… I. Was. Not. Happy. Masayoshi looked like he was about to have a heart attack, Mokona looked like it was having the time of its life, and Mizuki looked like she was … _bored_.

Although the whole 'name-are-the-same-in-every-language' thing made it easier to understand who he was talking about, I seriously had wished that that rule wasn't true at this point. I couldn't believe that they would tie_Mizuki_to the top of a _building_! I wanted to punch someone. Unfortunately someone spoke before I could.

"How'd you get up there!" I heard Fai ask them in his flippant way. I thought I heard a hint of tension in his voice, but I ignored it.

"You look like you're having _fun_! At least the white thing does!" Kurogane said.

"Well, at least Mizuki's not hurt," I muttered to myself in relief.

_Wait ... did I just understand what Fai said?_

"So you understand me now?" Kurogane asked the other two.

"Yeah. I get it now. At least what you three are saying," Fai said.

"So it _is_Mokona that's doing it," Syaoran voiced.

"Looks like it," I sighed, knowing what this meant. Then we all started running towards the castle.

"Mokona was serving as a translation device," Fai said as we were running. "Mokona is pretty incredible! Transporting us to other worlds…translating our languages for us… eating apples whole…"

"Hey! Does this mean anytime we get separated from it, we won't be able to communicate?" Kurogane asked.

"That's what it means," I answered with an annoyed tone.

"What a _pain_!"

_You're telling me,_I thought. We finally got close enough to the Hanshin Castle that I could barely see the top anymore. The farthest we were able to go was a ledge that wasn't too far away from the castle. Where there was a sea of people as far as the eye (or rather my eyes) could see.

"What's _with_these people?" Kurogane asked, frustrated.

"A lot of them, huh?" Fai said.

"This reminds me of the crazed fans that surround celebrities in my world," I said more to myself than in response to what Fai and Kurogane said. _A celebrity wouldn't do this kind of thing, even in this world, would they?_I thought to myself.

"Who is the one who wrote this letter?" Syaoran asked loud enough for all to hear while hold said letter high enough for all to see. Unexpectedly, a singy-songy type voice answered from behind us.

"That would be me!" We all turned and saw a girl, probably around my age or slightly younger, with long light colored hair and her outfit made her look like a fairy. On second thought, she looked more like a pixie… those are the ones that cause trouble for everyone, right?

"Primera-chan!" The crowd roared. _Great. She__**is**__a celebrity._

"Who is this woman?" Kurogane asked only to be reprimanded by her fans.

"You don't know Primera-chan? You must live under a rock!" one yelled.

"Primera-chan is our idol! She sings! She dances! She models! She even has a morning talk show!" another boasted. I wondered if maybe that was a bit too much for one person.

"More than that, she controls an incredible kudan. Cute _and_strong! She's the best!" shouted a third.

"Please let Mizuki-san, Mokona and Masayoshi-kun down!" Syaoran said. The girl, Primera, looked confused.

"You mean _that_isn't Syaoran?" she asked and pointed upwards towards her 'hostages,' but referring only to Masayoshi.

"I am Syaoran!" he said, gesturing to himself. To which her reply was to smack Mizuki, Mokona and Masayoshi's kidnappers silly yelling at them about how wrong they were (which was agreeable since you know…they look nothing alike). When she was finished with that she jumped out of the balcony she was on and landed on the roof of a lower part of the castle as Syaoran talked to her again.

"If you have any business, bring it to me! Let those three down right now, please!" he told her. I thought that the request might have been more effective without the 'please' but I didn't think that was going to happen.

"Nope!" the idol said bluntly while her fans crazed over her again. "If you want them back, you're going to have to _battle_me for them!" She made a pose while saying this like she was trying to look cute. Seemingly giving up on trying to free them with reason he said:

"We'll have to find a way up!" though it was only loud enough for the four of us to hear.

"I might be able to get up there," I heard Fai say. We all looked at him with curiosity.

"You know where the staircase is?" I asked him with a bit of obvious hope in the tone of my voice. Though, I think at least Syaoran and Kurogane understood the reason. It was hard to tell if Fai understood though, it was always hard to tell what that guy's thinking.

"No…but I should be able to get there."

"Yeah?" Kurogane asked doubtful. "How?"

"My kudan may be willing to help," the blonde answered. Then a large bird appeared around him. I could tell that it was wind because it 'vanished' and manipulated the air around Fai so that it would look like he was flying (or that's what _I_think it did). Well… I guess he _was_flying, and it figured as 'flighty' as he was.

"He's flying!" Syaoran exclaimed.

"These kudan come in _every_type," Kurogane complained. His statement made me wonder what type Mizuki's kudan was.

"Man! He can fly? No fair! If I can't, he shouldn't be allowed too!" Primera said which, in retrospect said _a lot_about her. "My kudan, _come on!_" she said, holding out her arm which appeared to hold some sort of microphone (_man, saying they come in every type doesn't even cover it_), "Now you'll see what kind of damage _my_kudan's attack can do!" she said just before talking into her microphone-kudan, starting out kind of like most singers open their concerts.

"IS EVERYONE HAVING FUN?*" she sang out; the words amplified in sound and shot out of her kudan and hit Fai in an explosion.

‡††††††††‡

"Fai-san!" I heard Syaoran yell from as far as they were. It was hard to see through all the smoke but I could tell he was alright. Still, although I knew he was alright, I was worried about him. The smoke cleared and he was still floating up in the air like a bird, much like the one that appeared around him earlier. Speaking of that bird, I could still see the threads of it and its energy and could tell that it was what was keeping him in the air.

"That was a surprise," he said, "A kudan can do that? This country is pretty amazing." I have to admit that all his talk on the amazement of this country was getting pretty annoying. Hanshin's 'amazement' is what caused Mokona, Masayoshi, and I to all get tied to the roof of this castle. Then again it wasn't too bad, I mean sure I didn't like that I was hundreds, maybe a little over a thousand, feet up in the air but it's not like I was afraid of heights. What I didn't enjoy was Mokona's constant clapping and praising of Primera's attack, it seemed counter intuitive if not mocking. Mocking _her_that is, which was not a good idea in our position.

"Primera-chan's kudan is special level! Be careful!" I heard Masayoshi warn Fai, still tearing up in fright. _He_obviously _was_afraid of heights. I thought that it was noble that, even while afraid, he had the heart to warn and help Fai with his opponent. Though I think that, while not wasted, his warning was not necessary. I could tell from the beginning that Fai was a capable fighter.

"That makes me so frustrated!" Primera complained (she was apparently used to things going her way.) "But … YOU WON'T BEAT ME!" she said into the microphone-kudan … only for Fai to dodge it completely. He did the same with her "DON'T YOU FLY ON ME!" and her "NO AVOIDING ME EITHER!" then a third time with her "QUIT RUNNING AWAY!" I imagined that had she not gotten so irritated this would have gone on for hours. "Why? Why can't I _hit_you?" she growled, making her look more like an annoyed kitten than the angry jungle cat she was trying, and failing, to appear as.

"If I let you hit me, it might hurt," Fai answered as if it was a simple question/answer type thing.

* * *

* #1: Crab-pot Revoulution

* #2: Crab Free-style

* #3: All-you-can-eat Crab

* #4: Magic Wave: Dragon King Sword

* #5: Sorry it must have been confusing to have the asterisks suddenly appear on english words but this one was just to explain a little more about Tsubame's kudan. I described what it looked like but only one of it's abilities. As you read it can help Tsubame locate people important to her. But it also has powers based on electricity and it can cause lightning storms to appear. It pretty cool actually but unfortunately he won't be making another appearance in the story.

* #6: This one was just to say that this will probably be the only time I use all caps when someone is talking (even for Kuro-sama's yelling fits). The only reason I out it here was because her voice was being amplified through her kudan and so that I (and possibly you guys) could tell the difference between Primera (who has lost the chance for Tsubame to EVER like her at all) attacking or talking.


	4. The Psychic's Kudan

I am so sorry that this chapter took so long, I ended up getting really busy with my last year of high school and other things. I'm also sorry about how short this chapter is but after realizing how long it had been I just wanted to update this story as fast as possible. I promise that, hopefully, I won't to cut a chapter this short ever again. And I would like to thank Blood Butterfly for revising and editing this chapter.

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Tsubasa characters or its story line, I only own Mizuki, Tsubame, and (to a certain extent) Mizuki's kudan. speaking of her kudan though, I do NOT own its design, which game from the video game Ookami. I DO own it's powers though.**

* * *

Chapter 4

The Psychic's Kudan

_Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak _

_enough to be restrained._

_**William Blake, **__**"The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"**_

Fai's statement was easy enough to understand, but Tsubame, aside from her worry about me being tied up so high (like I said, I don't have an issue with heights, but Tsubame does and whenever I'm up 'too-high-for-comfort,' she climbs up to get me and I end up being the one to get us both down once she realizes we're not close to the ground anymore,) and the possible impending danger that may have befallen the three of us since we were hanging like victory flags, didn't seem to quite get it. She looked at Fai for a short time, and then got distracted by Kurogane and Syaoran. I only realized later that it was the first for many looks she would give both Fai and me that had been almost unreadable.

"A tudor who tooted a fruit tried to tutor two doodoos to toot!" Primera yelled, the first of many incorrect tongue twisters. Fai, of course, dodged all of them, only proving that he was used to real combat. Something that Tsubame and I probably needed to have be taught quickly.

"You forced me into it! Change!" Primera said, I suppose to pump up the crowd watching, since nothing happened right away. As expected, her sea of fans cheered for her. "My kudan, change form! When my kudan becomes a mike stand… there's no running away!" she said as the microphone-shaped kudan transformed into a mike stand. "All the fans love meeeee-yeah!" Like before, the words formed in front of her from the kudan, only it was faster this time and it hit Fai head on. I could barely see Fai falling and landing in a tree from all the smoke. I couldn't help but worry as I heard the young archeologist shout his name.

"I'm alright!" the blond said, loud enough for even me to hear, waving his hand dismissively as he came out from the tree's leaves. "I never expected it to change form! And those letters really come after you! And since the girl is fighting with her kudan, and Mokona isn't reacting it must mean that the girl isn't the one with the feather." Primera, oblivious to what Fai had just said, laughed and asked:

"Well? Will you surrender?"

"If I did, what would happen next?" Fai answered.

"Then I move on to the next one to defeat, this 'Syaoran' guy!"

"We can't have that. Syaoran-kun has some important business to see through. I'd really rather that it ends with me," Fai said with a smile.

"If so, then I …." the pop princess said, "…WILL JUST HAVE TO WIIIIIN!" The words again came at Fai with the same speed as the last attack, except this time it didn't hit him. He leapt up onto the words and ran across them! When he finally got to Primera, she fell somehow, I didn't see how, and he had her pinned.

"I don't want to be the cause of injury to a beautiful young woman. Won't you stop?" he told her. (I couldn't see it at the time but I imagine that the look on her face was pretty priceless.) She mumbled something and then I suddenly got a really bad feeling.

_Oh, no. Don't tell me she's gonna…_

"THIS IS SO NOT FAIR!" she yelled, unknowingly into her kudan.

_Crap! She did!_ I thought as the words came hurdling towards Mokona, Masayoshi, and I. Next thing I knew, the three of us were tumbling to the ground. I heard Tsubame and Syaoran yelling something (I'm sure it was actual words, but my own screaming made it sound unintelligible,) before I stopped falling abruptly. It felt like I was hanging from the rope that had been tied up at my back. I looked behind me to see my kudan, the wolf that made the temperature in my dreams feel as if I'd been in the middle of a blizzard - kinda like how the rope was starting to feel. The wolf was almost more than half the size of the castle, which explained why it'd been able to catch me mid-fall. It was white like an arctic wolf and had this disc-like thing hovering over its back*. I looked over to where Masayoshi and Mokona were, and found that they'd been caught as well by a manta ray/water-type kudan. Tsubame had told me the day before that it belonged to someone named Shôgo Asagi.

"What do you think you're doing, Primera?" he asked her, having suddenly appeared.

"Shôgo-kun!" Primera exclaimed.

"You've got work to do, right?" he said as my kudan stepped, gently set me down where the others were, and snapped off the rope that had bound me. Then, seeing that she was no longer needed, she vanished.

"Don't you have a concert to prepare for?" Shôgo continued.

"I did it because … because you never some to see me!" Primera complained as Fai helped her up. "Besides, there's plenty of time! The concert's at Hanshin Dome right over there!"

"Even if it is, why are you destroying our cultural heritage?"

"You break buildings all the time, Shôgo-kun! Don't talk to me all high and mighty!"

"What are these two squabbling about?" Kurogane asked, just as Fai landed on the ground, rejoining the rest of us.

"Who cares?" Tsubame answered indifferently. I looked at the crowd beneath us and noticed that they were all bawling the eyes out.

"Hm? What are you all crying over?" Fai asked them.

"Primera-chan's in love with that team leader, over there!" one fan said.

"But since he never comes to see her, she's lonely!" another continued.

"How do you know all that?" I asked.

"Because Primera-chan made it official!" they said, pulling out a bunch of magazines with articles of said pop-star. One fan threw their magazine towards us, which Kurogane caught, then started reading.

"I don't know about you, but I'm supposed to go to school and help out with the family business! We're right down the street! You know the address!" Shôgo said, regaining my attention. He was holding up some apron that said 'Asagi Liquors'. "I was in the middle of a delivery!"

"But I'm lonely!" she started to cry, "so I asked this guy you like over to see me, hoping he would join the 'Primera Fan Club', and while you visited with him, you could see me too!" she said, pointing to Masayoshi.

I thought she was trying to get to Syaoran-kun. If she mixed them up she must pretty stupid, I thought critically.

"You're so dumb!" he said, referring to how the two boys look nothing alike, causing her to cry more.

"Syaoran! Syaoran!" Mokona yelled from the building, trying to get our attention.

"Mokona! Your eyes!" Syaoran exclaimed. Mokona's eyes were open, signifying that the little creature had sensed one of Sakura's feathers.

"It's here! The feather is real close by!" the white creature said.

"Where? Who has it?"

"Mokona doesn't know! But Mokona just felt a huge wave!"

"So some kudan has taken it inside itself," Fai said to us.

"But it gets stronger and then gets weaker. What is that supposed to mean?" Kurogane asked.

"Sorata-san said that kudan protect their owners," Syaoran said.

"So most likely, the moment it uses all of its strength is when its owner needs protection," I explained, thinking about when my own kudan saved me from that fall.

"Which would mean the best way to find the feather is to fight," Tsubame finished.

"I'm sorry that my words caused unexpected trouble for you, Syaoran," Shôgo said, "But I meant it. I do like your style. You're strong. And by that, I don't mean you got muscles. Right here." He pointed to his chest to indicate the heart. "So I wanted to try to take you on… with our kudan," the team leader challenged.

"Shôgo-kun, all you care about are your kudan battles! You retard!" Primera shouted angrily.

"Don't say 'retard'! Call me a 'fool' or an 'idiot' if you like."

"I understand," Syaoran interrupted their argument. "Then I accept your challenge!" His kudan, the fiery fox that Tsubame told me about, appeared beside him.

"You guys stay outta this, got me?" Shôgo commanded the rest of his group, who were all 'whooping' and placing bets. (I found out later that a few of them betted against their leader.)

"Like I said in my dream, I want power," the boy said to his kudan. "Power to protect Sakura. You'll fight along-side me?" he asked. The foxe's response was a simple, typical for a stoic-like fox: a nod. And so the fight began.

While he was fighting, the rest of us were talking about the boy. I'd wanted to help him out, but I was sure he'd be upset with me if I did. This was his fight after all. And anyway, he seemed pretty capable on his own.

"He's pretty cool, Syaoran-kun." Fai said.

"So he's more than just a pliable fool," Kurogane replied. (I felt as if Tsubame and I had no place in this conversation, given that we both had zero real fighting experience and that's what it seemed they were discussing.) "You both have faces that say, 'Ignore me, I'm a fool!' but I see through it." I was right; we had absolutely no place to be involved, in any way, in this conversation.

"Yeah. It seems like he's more than a guy with an archeology hobby." I noticed that the blond neither confirmed nor denied his own skills. Then again, it's possible that it'd been because he'd made them pretty obvious earlier. "He's still very young but young people can come through their pain. And I believe he has."

Yes, I thought, but what will he do when Sakura-chan wakes up and doesn't remember him?

"Mokona! Can you feel the feather's wave?" Syaoran asked the creature.

"The wave is there, but Mokona doesn't know who has it!" Mokona answered. That was a good question though. Who has the feather? Was it really Shôgo, or someone else? Syaoran gathered his kudan's energy around his fist, the way Tsubame had told me others had done during the street fight yesterday, and fired it at Shôgo, who responded by doing the same thing. But it was Shôgo who was blown away and caught by his water kudan (shocking quite a few people, I might add). The leader was a good sport though, and did nothing but praise Syaoran.

"Oh, man!" he said excitedly, "That was the first time I was ever hit like that!"

"Shôgo-kun!" Primera exclaimed.

"I'm fine! I told you to stop screaming my name! You'll ruin your voice just before a concert!"

"Wh-who ever said I cared what happens to you?" she said, sounding pretty flustered. He either ignored her, or realized that it was a rhetorical question.

"Really!" he was talking to Syaoran again. "You're a tough one! Kudan are controlled by the heart. What is it that makes yours so strong?"

"I have something that I must see through," Syaoran answered.

"That makes sense." After having it cleared of people uninvolved in the battle, Shôgo flooded the area.

"Syaoran-kun!" Masayoshi exclaimed, obviously worried. "This is terrible! Syaoran-kun will get washed away!" he continued, and although he was behind me and up on the building, I knew he was searching for him. Seconds later, Syaoran revealed himself from his shield of fire which had evaporated most of the water away. Next thing I knew, a part of the castle had collapsed, falling towards the three remaining on the lower part of its roof. Primera screamed and Masayoshi was moving to shield her and Mokona with his own body, yelling about how he had to be strong. Suddenly, his kudan (about one hundred times his usual size) appeared and blocked the falling debris with his hand. I think everyone was at least a little shocked.

"Mokona found it! The feather! It's in that kudan!" Mokona told us.

That kudan? Yeah, with what saw just now, I'm willing to believe that.

"Did I hear right? The feather's in that kudan? In that kudan?" Kurogane said, as if it was completely unbelievable.

"Why not?" I said. "Before, when he was using his kudan to find us Mokona couldn't sense it. But that may be because it didn't need its full power the way kudan do when protecting their masters. Last time Mokona sensed the feather was when Masayoshi-kun was in serious danger. Even now, it's trying to protect him," I explained as the now super-charged kudan lifted Masayoshi from the castle, despite Primera's protests. Then it began attacking randomly, and Primera and Mokona were unintentionally thrown off the castle. Luckily, Shôgo had acted fast and caught them both.

Kurogane, Tsubame and I had jumped down to join Syaoran (luckily, Tsubame and I were able to avoid injury thanks to all the sports we'd been involved in back home). Fai, though, 'floated' down using his kudan's abilities.

"What's wrong with that kudan?" the ninja asked as he landed. Answering him, Fai said:

"The feather had too much power for it. That's more kudan than Masayoshi-kun can control." As if proving his point, Masayoshi was pleading with his kudan to stop.

"What will you do now?" Kurogane asked Syaoran.

"I'm going to get Sakura's feather back," he said, resolutely walking forward.

"How do you intend to fight something that big? One slip up and you're dead!" the ninja said, as if he was either testing him or was just genuinely curious. Syaoran turned to face us, or rather Kurogane.

"I won't die," he said. "I still have something to see through. I can't die yet." There was a silence between all of us. Not the awkward kind, the kind where you don't know who will say what next. Fai was, of course, the one who broke that silence.

"Count on Kuro-pi to handle things here. You go ahead," he told Syaoran.

"What do you mean, me?" the ninja yelled furiously.

"Then I'll see you later," the boy said, and he took off.

"Syaoran-kun has strength. In a lot of different ways," Fai said, and I couldn't help but agree completely. "I get the feeling that I understand why that fire kudan came to him."

‡†††††††††‡

From what I could see, it looked like Masayoshi was trying his hardest to regain control of his kudan, who was still destroying the city, one blast at a time. Syaoran finally caught up with them, and next thing I knew he and his kudan were plunging themselves straight into the center of Masayoshi's kudan, probably where the boy told them that the feather was located.

"Looks like that kudan is trying to retaliate," I heard Tsubame say.

"Of course it is," Kurogane said. My thoughts ended up distracting me from the conversation; I wasn't interested in hearing Kurogane yelling at someone over something, which probably made Tsubame yell at him back.

_I wonder how bad his injuries will end up being_, I thought. _I doubt he minds though, since this might be the feather that helps Sakura-chan wake up…. Wait! What about when she wakes up? He knows she won't remember him, but is he really ready for that?_

Then, Syaoran was finally able to get Sakura's feather and Masayoshi's kudan shrunk down to normal size, and both of them were caught by Syaoran's kudan while said boy landed on the ground. And then it started raining, well in that one isolated area, since it was Shôgo's kudan making it rain on the parts where there was fire.

"The least I could do was keep the place from catching fire," he said.

"Sakura's feather! Sakura's memory! I was able to get one back for her!" I heard Syaoran say faintly.

‡†††††††††‡

After Syaoran bolted back towards the apartments the rest of us were left chasing after him. By the time I finally caught up with him, he was already in Sakura's room and she was just waking up.

"Who…are you?" I heard her ask. I watched Syaoran's expression fall so much that it couldn't even be called crestfallen anymore. It was pure despair. Anguish. It was just that simple. But, as if the words hadn't hurt him at all, he placed a smile on his face (and it should be noted that it wasn't totally over-the-top like Fai's fake-smiles were,) and introduced himself and even told her who she was.

"If you'd be so kind as to listen, I'll explain," he continued. "You are a princess from another world."

"Another…world?" Sakura asked sleepily.

"And at the moment, you've lost your memory. It's in order to find your memories that you're traveling between worlds."

"By myself?"

"No. You have traveling companions."

"Are you… one of those?" I couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for Syaoran.

"Yes."

"You're doing this for a total stranger?" Her question looked like it startled him.

"I am," he answered as Fai came to his rescue.

"Sakura-hime, I'm pleased to make your acquaintance. Fai D. Flourite, at your service," he said before lightly putting his hand on Syaoran's shoulder, silently granting him permission to leave the room. Then he gestured toward Kurogane and continued talking: "And may I present-"

"I'm Kurogane," he said, and so on so that we all introduced ourselves. Syaoran had finally left the room by then.

‡††††††††††‡

We were all looking out the window, watching Syaoran standing in the pouring rain.

"At that moment, I was sure he would cry," Fai said. "It seems that Sakura-chan is the most important person in the world to Syaoran-kun; so when she said 'who are you?' I felt certain he would cry."

_Me too_, I thought, but I said, "I wonder if he's crying now."

"Don't know," I heard Tsubame say.

"If he wants to keep from crying, he'll just have to get stronger. Strong enough so that he won't be the one crying in the end," Kurogane stated. Tomoyo was right to tell him that he needed to learn what true strength is.

"Yeah," I said, "but I think there's a certain strength needed to be able to cry when you need to, or even when you want to." As I said that I noticed all our kudan surrounding him, as if they could be a protective shield, not just from the rain, which must have been making him even more depressed, but from the hurt too.

‡†††††††††‡

The next day the group, minus Sakura, met Masayoshi at the restaurant where they had gone a couple of days before.

"Masayoshi-kun," Syaoran said, "I really want to thank you."

"Both my kudan and I," Masayoshi replied, "were always so weak, so…so… so," he started tearing up with emotion, "I'm glad you able to get the feather!" he said, smiling.

"You aren't weak!" Syaoran said. "Strength and weakness aren't measured only in battle. Going out and doing your best for someone else's sake is a wonderful sign of strength." Masayoshi was brought to tears again at this.

"Thanks! Thank you!"

"Yo!" a familiar voice called from the aisle.

"Shôgo-san!" the boy exclaimed.

"I'm glad my team gets good intelligence," he said as he scooted into the booth they were sitting at. "Nobody got wounded, right?" he asked.

"We're fine," Syaoran answered, then he bowed and said, "I'm sorry to have interrupted your battle."

"It's okay. It was the only thing you could do. circumstances being what they were," Shôgo replied. "Besides, I was losing that battle badly." To which the rest of his team answered with how they either won or lost money on their bets.

After everyone were all done eating, or rather most everyone were done eating - as Mokona was constantly stealing Kurogane's food…. much to his chagrin - they all started leaving to go back to the apartment.

"How long will you be in the Hanshin Republic?" Shôgo asked Syaoran.

"We'll have to go to a new world… err… country very soon," the boy answered as the rest of his group were a bit a ways from them, waiting for Syaoran for be finished talking*.

"I see. I'd hoped to meet you in places other than just battle. I wanted to guide you around town a bit. Primera was disappointed, too."

After shaking hands with Shôgo, Syaoran offered his hand to Masayoshi.

"If we make it back here, we'll look you up," Syaoran said as they left. "Count on it!"

While hearing some enthusiastic goodbyes, the group started to leave.

"Now, I've just got one last question to ask," Shôgo said to Masayoshi who looked up at him. Suddenly the team leader thrust goggles onto Masayoshi's head and continued: "Join up. Be a part of my team." Masayoshi seemed to be a bit shocked at first but eventually answered:

"I…I sure will!" loud enough to make Syaoran look back at them, and when he realized what happened he smiled for his new friend.

‡†††††††††‡

We were all outside in front of the apartment, ready to go to the next world. Packed, dressed in our original clothes and everything.

"You're going already?" Sorata asked Syaoran.

"Yes."

"But you haven't tasted all the cooking that's generated through the love of my honey and myself!" Sorata whined, only to be ignored as Syaoran gave Arashi back the money that had been lent to us during our stay. There was quite a lot left, considering the only things we'd bought were food a couple of times at that restaurant, five apples, and a shōnen-type* manga magazine.

"How are you feeling?" Tsubame asked me.

"Fine, it's just that traveling to a new world feels kind of surreal."

"I know what you mean. I mean you were asleep the first time so, between the two of us I'm the only one who remembers it, but it still feels like it's too crazy to believe."

Then, Mokona suddenly sprouted wings and the wind started blowing like crazy.

"Thank you so much for everything!" Syaoran said.

"I pray that you find one of Sakura-chan's feathers in your next world," Arashi said,

Me too, I thought. I'm a psychic and Arashi-san is a former priestess, so that must count for something, right?

And then Mokona sucked us into its mouth.

‡†††††††††‡

Traveling between worlds felt… thrilling, like a rush of the kind of excitement that one would get riding a rollercoaster. After we landed, it took me a minute to notice where we had landed: in the middle of a market with a lot of people around…how typical. I sat up and scanned the area for Mizuki, who ended up being right behind me.

"Huh? What is it now?" Kurogane asked, annoyed. And of course it was the happy-go-lucky Fai who answered.

"Wow! I think we're the center of attention!"

"You really think so?" I asked sarcastically. "Is that why everyone's staring at us?" He just laughed at me.

"Everybody wants to see Mokona!" the creature said as it landed on Mizuki's head. Before I could respond to that at all, some big guy with a weird hairstyle and a weird outfit to match showed up what seemed - to me at least - to be out of nowhere.

"Who the hell are they?" he said. "And where did you come from?"

Exactly what I was thinking, I thought. He then proceeded to grab Sakura roughly by the arm. Big mistake. As he soon found out when Syaoran kicked him in the face.

"Just who do you think you're kicking in the face?" the big guy yelled after he got up.

_Um…you?_

"Stop right there!" someone from some roof top yelled.

_Why do surprise people keep showing up out of nowhere?_

* * *

1: Like I said in the disclaimer the design of Mizuki's kudan is basically Amaterasu from the game Ookami, well ... minus the fire surrounding the ring. That wouldn't go very well with powers over ice. (And as a note, you might wanna keep an eye out cause she'll show up again later.)

2: I'm not sure what type of manga Kurogane got, this is just my best guess after looking at that one omake about it.

And on a side note, I was going to start another story on here until I realized that I needed to smooth over a lot of rough spot for it first. If any of you, my dear readers, happen to also be avid Bleach fans and would like to help, please just send me a personal message about it.


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